It started out as friendship
by Hilaryh25
Summary: Katie Grissom is Gil Grissom's niece she joins the CSI team after the death of one of their owm and she ends up falling in love with her teammate. Set in season 1 and continues through them.
1. Chapter 1

**It started out as friendship**

 **A/N: Hey everyone I am new to writing fanfic so bare with me on this. I have a lot of stories floating around in my head and i need to wite them down. i will try and continue to write as much as i can but being a mom thats hard lol. here is my first story. I am a huge fan of CSI and i am writing this story as if there was another member of the group. There will be more in the description. I hope you enjoy it.**

Her name was Katie Grissom, yes same last name as Gill Grissom, why you ask? Because she is his niece. She came to Vegas to help them out after Holly Gribbs was shot and killed. Her life growing up wasn't easy. Her father, Grissom's brother, was an abusive drunk who loved to smack her and her mom around until one day when Katie who was 16 at the time, was waiting for her parents to pick her up from an after school event, she waited for a couple hours when finally she saw a car pull up, but it wasnt her parents, it was her uncle Grissom. He gets out of the car and walks over to her.

"Uncle Grissom what are you doing hre? I thought my parents were coming to pick me up" She said as she walked towards him. He stopped in frontof her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Katie i have something to tell you, Im so sorry but there was an accident" He said with a sad look in his eyes, "Your parents are dead sweetie, Im so sorry"

Katie was in shock, tears were starting to come into her eyes as Grissom pulled her into a hug. She didnt know what to think. On the drive to her house to get some things to stay at her uncles house she couldnt help but go over her emoitions in her head. She was saddened by the fact that her mom was gone but was happy that her dad was dead. Did that make her a horrible person? Was it wrong for her to feel that way? Her head was so mixed with thoughts she didnt know what to do.

Years later after Grissom fully became her legal guardian her life kept spiraling out of control. She turned into a bit of a rebel. Always skipping class, going to parties and doing ecstasy and smoking pot, getting into trouble at her school. Grissom didnt know what to do, he knew it had something to do wit her grieving over the death of her parents. He tried talking to her which just endd up with Katie getting mad and storming out. It wasnt until Katie was 17 and she finally snapped back into reality when her life was put in danger. She was getting bored of the same old high school parties so she decided to go visit the college campus and sneak into one of th frat house parties. She was drinking, dancing, flirting with older guys, one in particular. After he brought her a refill on her drink they went upstairs to his room where she started to feel really weird, turns out he had drugged her and was planning on taking advantage. She fought him off and was starting to get to the stairway when the drugs started to take hold. Not being able to keep her balance anymore he lost control and fell down the stairs.

She woke up in the hospital the next day to see Grissom sitting next to her bed asleep. She tried to sit up but her body hurt so bad she couldnt. She woke Grissom up and ask what happened, after he told what happened and that he was extremely terrified when he got the call Kati looked at him with sorrow and said "I promis I will turn my life around. I can do it uncle just give me another chance." She started getting tears in her eyes when Grissom hugged her.

"One more chance. Prove yourself."

Katie graduated after some really hard work and long hours. She went to college at CalTech to study criminalistics just like Grissom. Her life had turned around for the better, she still stayed in contact with Grissom but he was usually to busy sometime to talk to her. Which she understood she had her own life to take care of. Until one day when she got a job offer, from Grissom.


	2. Chapter 2

**It started off a friendship**

After getting a call from Grissom asking Katie if she would be interested in a job at the Las Vegas crim lab, Katie had some serious thinking to do but eventually accepted the offer. It wasnt to long of a drive from her apartment to the crime lab, Grissom told her to just go to the receptionist and let the lady know it was her first day.

"Hi my name is Katie Grissom, its my first day here and i was wondering where my uncle Gil is?" As th receptionst was about to tell her that Mr. Grissom was in the field a man who overheard the conversation spoke up.

"You must be his niece he told us was coming. I'm Nick Stokes its nice to meet you."

As he shook her hand Katie couldnt help but notice the handsome texan talking to her. She couldnt help but stare at him thinking god was showing off when he made him. " Grissom is still at the hotel working on a case but he told me to pass on that you will be seeing Eckle first to get the paper work sorted. I'll show you where his office is just follow me." As they started walking down the hall which seemed like forever Nick was asking her a few questions like what made her choose the forensic field, where she went to college, etc. Finally they arrived at Eckle's office, " I'll be right down the hall when you're finished" he said with the most amazing smile.

After what seemed like hours filling out paperwork and answering Eckle's questions Katie made her way down the hall and found Nick talking to a spikey haired guy who looked like he belonged on a chess team or something, she knocked on the glass door and they both looked up, " Hey how did it go talking to Eckle?" Nick asked.

"Just like any other interrigation," she said trying to hold back a smile, "but he did say that with my high marks I would be able to start right away and assigned me to help you and Grissom on the hotel case." As Nick was about to speak the spikey haired guy spoke up, "Hello there I'm Gregg Sanders, pleasure to make your aquaintance," he said shaking her hand, " and you must be?"

Katie smiled awkardly and responded, "I'm Katie Grissom nice to meet you Gregg." Gregg withdrew his hand and gave a questionable look to Nick who anwered, "Thi is Grissom's niece who just got a job here." He said as he looked at Katie and smiled. _God this guy is not making it easy to focus on my first_ Katie thought to herself.

A few months of working with everyone Katie finally felt like apart of the CSI family and she loved being able to work with Grissom everyday because they grew closer then they were back when he was just her guardian, he felt like a father to her, one that she wished she had. Her and Nick's friendship grew too, they flirted a few times and he wasnt making it easy for her to ignore his charms. After awhile Katie started to develop strong feelings for Nick, became close friends with Cathrine and Sara, her and Warrick became friends as well.

Katie and Nick had the night off and as they were leaving the lab she was about to ask him if wanted to get some breakfast together but Nick's phone rang and she heard the him mention the name Kristy and he walked away waving back to Katie. _Well that stings a little_ she thought to herself as she got to her car and went home.

The next day was not a good day for Nick, turns out that girl he mentioned was found dead after Nick spent the night with her. Nick was under investigation and Katie tried her hardest to be there for him but she needed to focus on the case to prove that Nick was innocent. A few days passed and Nick's name was cleared and they caught the real killer and everything started to get back to normal.


	3. Chapter 3

**It started as friendship**

A few more months passed since the Kristy incident and Nick seemed like his normal self again, talking sports with Warrick, flirting with Katie again a little, and working on cases. Until one day when they were working a case that had serial killer written all over it, the killer was toying with Grissom and Katie wasnt happy about that. She was going home and Nick ran out after her.

"Katie! Wait up" he called out to her, "Hey are you ok?" KAtie turned to face him with tears started to form in her eyes but she tried to hide them.

" I'm fine, just tired is all." She went to turn back to her car when she felt his hand on her shoulder causing her to turn back to face him again but this time he was a little closer to her and without saying anything he pulled her into a hug and she couldnt help but let the tears fall down her face, "I know i should be used to this but...it's makes me angry to see Grissom get toyed with like this. I know he can handle himself but he's my uncle and through everything he never gave up on me and he never gives up on a case but i hate seeing him like this." She finally pulled away from Nick and he looked at her with hurt in his yes, not just any hurt but he hurt for her as well as Grissom. He wiped away a tear from her face, "He will be ok, he wont let this go but he needs to focus on other cases now. You know as well as I do that he is tough and stubborn. Having you here helps him." In that moment Katie wanted to tell Nick how she felt about him. As they stood there for what felt like forever she finally snapped out of it and decided that now was not the time for that.

"Thank you for letting cry on you Nick, even though I got your shirt a little wet." She said with a laugh. Nick laughed a little too, " That's what I'm here for. If you ever need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on I'm here for you." They said their goodbyes and went to their cars to head home. All Katie could think about the rest of the day was how much she wanted to kiss Nick's perfect lips but knew it would be a big mistake because she also thought what if he didnt feel the same? She would ruin their friendship and would never be able to work together anymore.

Few days later after they just finished a case involving a scuba diver who was found dead in a tree by the fire rescue team, once again Nick and Katie were getting off work together but this time it was different, Nick had given Katie a ride to work because her car was in the shop and he lived the closet to her. As they got to Nick's truck he stopped and turned to Katie, " Hey do you have any plans right now?" Katie looked at him with a questionable look on her face.

"No, other then putting on Pj's and passing out on my bed I pretty much hav no plans. Why?" she asked. He gave a slight chuckle and shifted his body lookin rather nervous which Katie thought _He looks so cute when he's nervous, but what is he nervous about?_

"Well I was wondering if you maybe wanted to get some breakfast together. I know this great diner not to far from my place. If you wanted to that is." Katie gave a smile wondering to herself if was asking her on a date or just being nice. "Sure," she said, "breakfast sounds perfect."

At the diner after they had finished their food they just sat there talking like how they normally do but there was something different about their conversation. Nick pretty much knew about Katie's rebelious past and Katie knew about Nick's high school jock life. Eventually they left the diner and Nick brought her home, Nick got out and walked Katie up to her apartment which was on the third floor and as they got to her door Katie unlocked the door but stood facing Nick, " Thank you for breakfast Nick I had an amazing time. For a breakfast date." She said with a teasing smile on her face. Nick moved a little closer, "You caught onto that huh?" he said with a blush.

Katie moved a little closer to him as well, "I think I'm smart enough to know when I'm being asked on a date Nick, I did go to Caltech after all." She said with a smile, just then Nick looked at her and without hesitation he put his hand on her cheek, brought his face to hers and kissed her softly at first then it grew a little more passionately. Finally they pulled apart and got back to the world. They stood there looking at each other wondering what the other was thinking.

"You have no Idea how long I have waited to do that." Nick said wanting to kiss her again but waited to see if she was going to slap him or if she wanted to kiss him again as well.

"Nick...I have been wanting to do that too, ever since I cried on your shoulder that day outside the lab. I have had strong feelings for you that go beyond friendhip for a long time now. I didnt want to say anything because I was so scared that if you didnt feel the same thn i ruined our friendship." She looked at him hoping he would say something but it felt like an eternity when he finally spoke, "Well i guess you took the word right out of my mouth," He said with a smile and pulled her into another kiss," I've felt the same way too but finally Warrick told me to grow a pair and ask you out."

"So what happens now?" Katie asked not wanting this moment to end, Nick looked at his watch then back at Katie.

"I guess i could leave you to your original plans that involve PJ's and a bed." Katie knew that she was feeling tired but couldnt move away from Nick,"Or you could come in for some coffee and we could talk somw more or maybe do a little more kissing." she said with a smile, he knew that whenever a girl asked a guy into her place for a drink or coffee it was code for i really just want you in my bed.


	4. Chapter 4

**It started out as friendship**

 **Chapter 4**

That night me and Nick were laying in my bed, I turned over and faced him, he was still sleeping and I tried to move carefully to get out of the bed but I felt Nicks arms tighten around my waist he pulled me back towards him.

"Where do you think your going?" He asked kissing my neck lightly and I giggled.

"I was trying to get up and use the bathroom but someone wouldn't let me go." I told him and turned in his arms and faced him.

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure this wasnt a dream." He said and I kissed him on the lips.

"It's not a dream cowboy, it really happened." He smiled and kissed me again.

"Good," He said and let go of my waist, "You can go do what you planned on doing."

I smiled and got up grabbing his shirt off the floor heading into the bathroom, when I got out I saw Nick sitting up on the edge of the bed with my comforter drapped over his waist, he was just hanging up is cell phone and looked over at me.

"That was Grissom, we have a case, but I think we might be late because that shirt looks way sexier on you then it does on me." He said standing up walking over to me and gripping my hips, I put my arms around his neck.

"Are you trying to seduce me Nick Stokes?" I asked him and he grinned at me.

"Is it that obvious?" He asked and I smiled aas he kissed me again and he moved me backwards towards the bathroom.

Later on after he dropped me off to get my car we arrived at the lab and got our cases, I followed Nick and Grissom to the crime scene.

"Sorry, guys. I lost you at the fork." I said approching them and Nick looked at me.

"My bad, Katie." He said giving me a small smile and I see Grissom look up at us then at our suspect.

"Let's process this guy shall we?" He says then looks at the officer, "Officer, would you uncuff him, please?!" The officer uncuffs Benjamin Jennings and and Grissom takes out a black light and begins examining him from the back.

Nick puts his kit down, "Okay, make like a scarecrow for me, partner," Nick says but the guy doesnt move so Nick spreads his arms out to show him what he means and Benjamin copies him, "Arms out, away from your body. That's it. Stay just like that.

I crouch low to the ground next to his legs, "Give me your right foot." I told him and he held up his left foot, "Other right. Put it down. Lift it up."

"Hold still." I hear Grissom tell him

"Got some red fibers." Nick said

"Other foot." I told Benjamin, "Lift it up. Put it down."

"No defensive wounds. No hematomas." Grissom said

"Victim didn't fight back. Probably didn't see it coming." Nick told him.

"Matthew ... tag that body for special processing, VIP room. Don't wash it till I get there, and don't touch his fingernails." Grissom told the coroner.

Back at the Coroners lab me and Grissom are examining the dead body, I noticed a white substance on the victims forehead and scraped it off

"Flour, maybe?" I said to him.

"But what kind? All-purpose? Self-rising? Pastry?" He asked and I gave a small smile.

"Trace will probably have a better idea. I'll get DNA to see if there's bits of Ben under the fingernails." I told him

"What about the neck? Any fibers in the wound?" He asked

"You told me to wait for you." I told him looking at him

"Well, that hasn't stopped you yet."

"I did observe some fibers in the wound. I didn't collect them, though." I told him

"Be my guest." He said and I picked up the fibers from the dead body's neck

"Yellow. Not cotton; satin, maybe." I said putting them in an evidence bag

"Dress shirt ... but no tie." Grissom said

"Strangled with his own tie?" I asked

"Find me on the flour." He said and then leaves.

I went back to the autopsy room later on after figuring out what the white substance was.

"I cannot tell you why, but I might be able to tell you where. A pizza shop. The flour on Oliver Dunne has a low gluten content - seven percent protein - it's typical of flour used to make cakes, pizzas, that kind of thing." I told Grissom who was standing there with Robbins

"So, why did you rule out bakeries?" He asked

"Well, the subtype of flour is another subtype - double zero. It's a very fine flour used only in pizza-baking ovens. Oh, and trace picked up some oregano in the sample. When are you set to interview Ben?"

While Grissom was interviewing Ben I walked into the employee lounge and got some coffee, while my back was turned I felt someones hands on my hips.

"Guess who?" I heard a familiar texan accent say and I smiled.

"Umm...Warrick?" I said and I felt the grip on my hips tighten a little as I was turned around to face Nick.

"Haha very funny" Nick said and I smiled at him.

"Sorry, with all the handsome men around here I get confused." I said and he smirked.

"Well maybe this will help." He said and leaned in to kiss me but I pulled back and he looked confused.

"Sorry, it's just...Grissom or someone else could walk in and I'd rather not risk either of us losing our jobs." I told him and he nodded his head, I was fuzzy on people dating each other in the department.

"I understand, this is going to make things really tough because all I wanna do right now is kiss you," Nick said and ran his hands up my hips to my face, "and touch you" my mind was starting to go fuzzy as he touched me but I put my hands on his and moved them to his sides.

"I know and trust me I do too, but let me talk to Cathrine first, she has a better understanding then I do right now on the rules." I told him and he nodded his head, just then Grissom walked in and told us we were going to go search for another body.

Me, Nick, Grissom and a group of other officers started sweeping the area where Oliver Dunne's body was found. Nick is pushing a GeoRadar Inc. machine and I was walking next to him holding a laptop that shows the various items being scanned by the machine.

"I feel like I'm mowing a lawn." Nick said

"What is that? A beer can? Soda can?" I asked him looking at the laptop and we continued to find nothing.

"Zilch." Nick told me

"Zilch." I said as well

"Don't tell me, more zilch?" Nick asked and just then on my laptop I see the figure of a hand appear

"Whoa... whoa. Point of disturbance." I told them

"Hold up." Grissom said and more arm and body appears on the radar's screen, "Isolate it." He told me and we finally see the shape of a person's head.

"Grissom..." I said and my uncle turns around to look at Benjamin who is standing off in the distance with Sgt. O'Riley and three officers and he makes his way back to him. I see them talking and then Grissom turns and walks away.

The body is being excavated from the site and Nick is inside the hole with the body and is using a shovel to remove the dirt while me and Grissom are standing above with another Foresnic personnel. I'm sifting the dirt around the site looking for evidence and behind us someone aprroches

"Gil Grissom?" The man asks

"Father?" asked Grissom, _Oh this should be interesting_ I thought to myself and continued what I was doing.

"Benjamin's a member of my parish. The officer won't let me talk to him. He said you were in charge."

"Of this crime scene." Grissom told him

"He needs spiritual guidance." the Father told him

"Yeah, I imagine he does." Grissom told him and I looked at him with a questionable look

"Ah ... then you'd have no problem with my talking to him."

"It's the 11th hour. I wouldn't expect anything less." Grissom told him and I shrugged my shoulders at Nick who looked at me with question.

"Eleventh hour?" The Father asked

"When the reality of their actions set in, they usually turn to religion." Grissom told him

"Can you think of a better time?" The Father asked and walked away

Grissom turns around and looks back at Nick, "Okay, hold it. That's enough. Let's dust him." Grissom said and Nick puts the shovel aside and I do the same and grab my camera and begin to photograph the body.

"No ligature marks." Nick said

"Different from the first guy." I said

"See if this laceration on this guy's forehead is consistent with the kid's shovel.

"Hey ... I feel a wallet here." Nick say and pulls out the wallet from the dead body's front pocket looking at the ID, "Ramirez Kenny. A 25-year-old Latino and a 42-year-old white guy?"

"Strangers. Doesn't make sense. There's no connection." I told them

"Well, it obviously wasn't a robbery." Grissom said and Sgt. O'Riley approaches

"Hey." He said

"Hey, O'Riley. What's the matter, man? A/C not working?" Nick asked him and I chuckled

"I was on with dispatch. Oliver Dunne's car was just found by the highway patrol abandoned at an Avcon station off 215." O'Riley said

"They didn't happen to find another car there, did they?" Grissom asked him

"Yeah. Registered to a Ramirez." He told us

"Yeah ... gas station." Nick said and I helped him out of the ditch and put camera down and we headed off to the gas station.

The drive there was nice because I sat in the passenger seat of Niks truck and he was holding my hand then brought it up to his lips and kissed it, I looked over and smiled at him as we pulled into the gas station.

We were talking to thegas station attendant about the two victims and he told us he had no idea what happened.

"Two men were shot and killed and you didn't see anything?" I asked him

"Sorry." He said

"You don't just miss something like that. What was going on?" Nick asked him

The attendant looked between the two of us, "A friend of mine came with his new car. We took it for a drive. I'm afraid my boss will find out. I was only gone five minutes." He said acting nervous

"Okay, all right. Just-just walk us through it. When did you know there'd been a crime committed?" Nick asked the kid

"Well, my buddy dropped me back here and I noticed these two cars. I went to check them out." _Quick flashback to the attendant walking toward the two cars near the gas pump island. Both driver side doors are open. He reaches the first car and shuts the driver's door close. He looks around and doesn't see anyone. He does, however, notice a puddle of blood on the ground.) Kirk: Oh, my god. (End of flashback.)_

"I don't see any blood." Nick pointed out to him

"Yeah, I hosed it down." The kid said and I looked at him.

"You what?" I asked him

"It was freakin' me out." The kid said and I shook my head.

We returned to the lab after that to report to Grissom.

"Murder scene was compromised." Nick told him as we walked into his office

"Pump jockey wasn't very helpful but bullets pulled from victim one and victim two. Identical striations. Bullets in both victims were fired by the exact same weapon." I said placing the baggies in front of him

"A Lorcin .380. The same pistol registered to a Benjamin Jennings." Nick hands a copy of the pistol registration to him.

"P.D. Can prove through credit cards that Ben frequents the AvCon gas stations where both vics were killed." I said and Grissom sits down.

"And we can prove he transported those bodies in his vehicle based on the blood you found." Nick said

"And fibers. I recovered a burgundy fiber from the sock of victim one. Found the same fiber on the sock of victim two."

"We I.D'd the fibers using the FTIR. It's a polymer commonly used in vehicle carpeting. Sara: So we went back to Ben's car. They're identical." Nick told him.

"We got the master standards from the car manufacturer. The assigned name for the material is "12-ounce Merlot-Poly." I said

"Bottom line ... he killed them." Nick pointed out

"Good work, you guys. Very good. But you haven't proved murder. You've proved burial." Grissom said and I looked at him confused

"Excuse me?" Nick asked

"Victim blood on his clothes ... Under his nails." I said

"From burying them." Grissom told me

"Victim blood in his car?" Nick said

"He transported them. Show me the gun with Ben's prints on it. Gun shot residue, the ligature, the ..." Grissom said but I cut him off

"... The holes in Christ's hands, Doubting Thomas?" I asked

"Yes. Empirical evidence. St. Thomas was ahead of us all." Grissom said

"Does this have anything to do with the priest that's been coming around here?" Nick asked

"No. It has to do with the evidence." Grissom answered

"It's our job to present the D.A. with the best evidence possible. Let a jury decide. Anything else, we're playing judge. The evidence doesn't get any better than this." Grissom says and looks between the two of us, "Okay. Ship it. Show it to the D.A." He said

"Right." Nick said and started collecting up the evidence and we left the office. I saw Cathrine sitting in the lounge and I looked at Nick and told him to wait for me outside, he nodded and walked out and I went into the lounge.

"Hey Cathrine can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked and she looked at me

"Sure, what's up?" She asked and I sat down across from her.

"You know the rules a lot better then I do around here better then I do. Whats the policy on inter office dating?" I asked and she looked at me and smirked.

"So you and Nick huh?" She asked and I looked at her shocked and confused.

"How-"

"Oh please it's obvious that you two have had a thing for each other since day one." She said and I sighed, "Plus I saw you two getting rather close to each other earlier when I walked past here." She said and I blushed.

"Oh...that" I said

"Yeah that, dont worry no one else saw. Look as far as you two being together its tough to say, the department usually doesnt like it because it can affect the team if you guys broke up or you let your emotions for each other get in the way of cases. If Nick was your supervisor then it makes it impossible because then they would worry about favoritism, in your guys case I would say it all depends on your supervisor, who happens to be your uncle." She said and I sank in my seat, "Look, if you guys can prove that your relationship wouldnt affect the team or get in the way of your job then I dont see why you cant be together, but my advice, the sooner you tell Grissom, the better." She said and I nodded my head and thanked her before heading out to the lot to meet Nick, I got into his truck and looked at him.

"What?" He asked with a smile and I leaned over and kissed him on the lips which he returned.

"I'll tell you on the way" I said and leaned back into my seat and buckled up, Nik started the truck and we headed to the D.A's office.

Later on Grissom and Nick are looking up Benjamin's records and as I got to the office I passed Grissom as he leaves and I walk in seeing Nick still looking at the laptop.

"What's going on?" I asked and he turned and sighed

"You know how we pushed him to file on Ben?" He asked

"Yeah."

"We might have been wrong." Nick told me.

After that me and him go to Roger Jenning's trailer, Oliver Dunne's co worker.

"Anything on the list besides the tie?" I asked him

"Nope." He answered and we approach the two officers standing outside.

"Hey, guys"

"Hey, guys. You can go ahead and take off. I think we got it." Nick told them.

"Thanks." The one officer said and they left.

"Really? You send them away?" I asked him and he looked at me.

"Yeah, come on we got this, plus maybe I sent them away beause I wanted to do this." He said and gave me a small kiss on my lips and I smiled as he walked to the trailer and I follow him.

"Whoa." I said looking around thr trailer and find some dry cleaning, "Hey. Dry cleaning. The trailer's low-rent. Dry cleaning's expensive." I tell Nick and I look at the clothes and see a drop of blood.

"Katie?"

"This man's not as smart as he thinks. Dry cleaning bakes in blood stains." I told him

"Could be red sauce." He said and I looked at him

"Oh, now you're cautious." I said to him with a smirk

"I'm just trying to put our mistake to good use." He says

"Okay. You check the perimeter and I'll see if we have blood stains or red sauce." I told him.

"Okay." He says and leaves the trailer to check outsideI put the dry cleaning down to get my stuff from my kit. I use a scissors and cut out a small triangular-shaped sample of the questionable area and take that sample and put it in a test tube, "Hemoglobin." I said to myself then talk louder to Nick, "Take a look at this." When I dont get a response from him I put the cap on the test tube and put it aside to go find him, I grab my flashlight and stand, "Nick?" I try again, nothing so I exit the trailer, "Hey, Nick." I say and approach him and see what he's holding. It's the missing murder weapon.

Im in Greg's lab waiting for the results of the red stain I found on the dry cleaning.

"Blood from Jennings's denim shirt." Greg says and pulls the results sheet off the printer and hands it to me.

"Is the printer out of ink?" I asked him, I looked at the paper and it said ND ND ND

"It means "None Detected." The dry cleaning baked in the blood and it also degraded it to a degree that I just can't get a result."

"Try again. This could be victim blood. Try again." I tell him

"I have tried. It's chemically impossible, Katie. Nothing from nothing is nothing." Greg hands me the test results and I leave. I walked into the ballistics lab just in time to hear the end of a conversation.

"Yeah. Changed how the bullet relates to the barrel so when the bullet emerges, its fine stria are altered." Bobby tells Grissom and Nick

'Any idea what he used?" Nick asked and I stood next to him.

"Whatever it was ... did the job." Bobby said

"My evidence is no better. Total loss." I told them

"We present this to the D.A." Nick said

"Unfortunately, we've had this discussion before." Grissom told him

"The guilty brother's going to walk." Nick said and Grissom leaves the room.

We had finally solved the case but unfortunately Benjamin Jennings killed himself in his cell. I left work, got in my car and headed home, I was in desperate need of a shower and some sleep. I got home and checked my machine but like always there wasnt any messages, I made my way to my bathroom and turned on the water, as I was about to get undressed I heard a knock on my door, I turned off the water and went to the door, I peeked through the peephole and saw Nick standing there, I sighed and opened the door.

"Hey"

"Hey, you took off from work rather quickly are you okay?" He asked and I leaned my head on the door.

"Yeah I-I'm I just needed a shower and some sleep." I told him and he nodded his head.

"I see, I thought you were mad at me." He said and I smirked at him.

"Trust me if I was mad at you, you would know." I told him.

"Right" He laughed, "Well I'll get out of your hair, maybe we can have lunch or dinner whenever you wake up." He said and started to leave but I grabbed his hand.

"Well now it would be pointless for you to drive home after coming all the way here." I said and pulled him into my apartment. He grinned at me and I shut the door and before I knew it he had me pinned against it and his mouth was on mine. I smiled into the kiss and my arms went around his neck and his hands went on my hipsand he lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. He moved his mouth from mine and his lips traveled from my jaw down to my neck, I moaned as he bit down on my neck lightly, I gripped my fingers in his hair.

"You trying to mark me Mr. Stokes?" I asked him and he looked at me.

"How else will everyone know you're mine?" He said then kissed me again moving us from the door heading towards my bedroom and he laid me down on the bed and sat up removing his shirt then he came back down and started kissing my neck again and running his hand up my side, under my shirt and gently squeezed my breast. I moaned and gripped onto his shoulders and he lifted me up and pulled my shirt off and I moved my hands down his chest running my nails along it and he growled in my ear, I made my way to his pants and started to work on the buttons and zipper as he worked on mine. We got each others pants off and he scooted us up more on the bed, I put my hands on the back of his neck and pulled his face closer to mine.

Nick moved down from my mouth and worked his way to my breasts kissing and nibbling on the skin above my bra, as I arched my back and let out a moan he took the opportunity to unhook my bra and toss it to the side, he trailed kisses down my chest to my stomach and made his way back up. When he got back to my lips I used my strength and flipped him so I was on top and I put his hands above his head.

"It's not nice to tease." I said to him and I kissed his jaw and did the same he did to me by trailig kisses down his chest and lightly bit at it too and I heard him groan, his member was hard and pressing against my stomach. I made my way back up and gave him one more kiss before getting up and straddling his lap, he put his hands on my hips and I lowered myself onto him and we both let out a moan and I started to move my hips slowly and I placed my hands on his chest for balance. I picked up the pace and Nick gripped my hips tighterand helped me move while moaning my name, I tilted my head back and continued to go fater pushing him deeper into me. Next thing I knew Nick sat up and shifted us slightly so we were face to face and he moved one hand into my hair and the other wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into a kiss and I moaned into his mouth.

"God your amazing" He said to me and I smiled at him and picked up the pace more and moved up and down on him and he groaned against my neck and moved his hand that was around my waist to my ass and gripped it tightly causing me to moan. We worked against each other then I felt close to my release, I moved my mouth to his ear and bit down on it lightly.

"Say my name." I told him and he pulled my head back putting our foreheads against each other.

"Katie...my beautiful, sexy Katie." He said and I kissed his lips before biting his bottom on lightly and he pulled me closer to him and we both reached our peak. He layed down and I got off him and layed down next to him putting my head on his chest while we both caught our breath.

"How did I end up with a girl like you?" Nick asked and kissed the top of my head.

"A girl like me?" I asked and looked up at him.

"Beautiful, smart, the kind of girl who I would stand no chance with in back in high school." He said and I laughed.

"You obviously didnt know the kind of girl I was back in high school. I was a trouble maker, Grissom had to come to the school so many times because I would start fights or skip class." I told him thinking back to those days, I regret the trouble I would put my uncle through after my parents death.

"Speaking of Grissom, we really should tell him about us." Nick said and I put my head back down.

"You're right, we should, it's just...I'm worried about how he will react. one of us could lose our job." I told him and he lifted my head back up to look at him.

"I'd rather lose my job then be told I couldnt be with you anymore. Cathrine is right, the sooner we tell him the better." He said and I kissed his lips, I cant believe this man next to me would rather be fired then lose me. After I pulled away I nuzzled back up to his chest and sleep over took me.


	5. Chapter 5

**It started out as Friendship**

Over the next few days it was getting harder and harder to tell Grissom about me and Nick, everytime I would get a chance we would either get interupted by a case or someone else would intrupt. I was at Nicks house a couple nights later and we just finished up dinner that he cooked and decided to watch a movie, I had to got the bathroom so Nick paused it and I got up, after I was done I came back out and was going to tell Nick that he really needed to get some curtains in his bathroom.

"Hey Nick did you know yo-" I started to say but I stopped when I saw Nick standing at the front door and I froze when I saw Grissom standing there. He looked at the both of us then put his eyes back on me.

"Whats going on here?" He asked and I moved my legs towards where they were.

"I..um..well we..." I started to say but Nick spoke for me.

"Grissom...me and Katie have been seeing each other." Nick told him.

"Seeing each other?" Grissom asked and I could see a little bit of anger in his eyes.

"Dating...we started dating each other." I said

"How long has this been going on?"

Me and Nick looked at each other and I looked bak at Grissom, "For about a month." I said.

"A month? And I'm just finding out about it now?" Grissom said

"Look I'm-" I started to say but Grissom held up his hand.

"We'll talk about this later, we're needed at the lab." He said and walked away. I looked at Nick and he put a hand on my shoulder before we grabbed our coats and headed to the lab. Later on me and Grissom headed to our crime scene, the ride there was silent and awkard, when we arrived Grissom went to talk to Brass and I started looking around the scene. I went over to another culvert pipe away from the victim because I saw something that caught my eye, another body.

"Um, Grissom" I said and him and Brass walked over to me.

"What do you got?" Grissom asked me

"The one thing you don't want to find at a murder scene." I say and he sees what I'm looking at.

"A second body ..." He says.

Later on I see Grissom walk into his office reading a file and carrying his case and I follow him.

"I processed the crime scene. Lots of treads and tracks, but nothing salient." I told him.

"What about the culverts?" He asked not looking at me.

"I came up empty. I worked from the victims out till I hit the highway. Nothing. Nothing to process, no follow-up, zip." I told him and he turns around and gives me the "look" which I recognize immediately.

"You have something." I pointed out

"Print lab ID'd one of the vics."

"Blond or brunette?" I asked him

"Brunette. Joan Marks. At 18, she was booked for felony shoplifting. Lived at home, we got the address. Warrick grabbed a uniform. He's on his way there with a warrant." He told me and I nodded.

"Look Grissom, we need to talk, and I know your going to say it's not the right time for this but that's what I need to tell you. I have tried to tell you so many times but other stuff got in the way, cases, other people or we were both just to busy and kept missing each other. I wanted to tell and I hate that you found out this way but...I know saying sorry sounds childish but I am, I am sorry and I want you to know that Nick and I have never let our relationship get in the way of work, we keep it seperate. Work is work and our personal life stays outside of this place and crime scenes. We care about each other a lot, and if need be I'll work days and you can keep Nick on nights, and if that doesnt work I'll leave, I'll resign and then that way there is no conflict here." I told him and he just looked at me then put his case down.

"Katie, I dont know what to do here. I cant have any say in this because your my niece, I'm going to have to have Ecklie deal with it." He said and I looked down, he walked over to me, "There is one thing though that I will ask you." He said and I looked up.

"What's that?"

"Does he make you happy?" Grissom asked me and I gave him a half smile.

"He does, he really does, I've honestly have never been this happy before." I told him and he pulled me into a hug, Grissom wasnt one to hug anyone, not even me, so whenever he did it made me happy.

"Then that matters to me," He said and pulled back looking at me, "But I am going to have a little talk with Nick." He said and I laughed.

"I kind of figured you would" I said and I left his office.

Later on Grissom and I check in with the officer outside Donna Marks house, we walk into the garage carrying our kits.

I open the car door and sit behind the wheel, Grissom opens the passenger door and kneels down to look inside.

"Twelve hundred miles and it's an older model. Driver doesn't get out much." I say to him Grissom looks in the glove compartment and he pulls out the car registration paper.

"Registered to a Donna Marks."

"Could be our blond. Related to Joan Marks. I'll check with DMV." I tell him and Warrick walks up to the carand we both stand up

"I already did. 28 years old, blonde, blue eyes, 125 pounds, five-six ... sound familiar?" Warrick asks

"That's her." I said

"Uniform's talking to a neighbor. Donna is Joan's older sister.

"Well ... we know what they have in common now, don't we?" Grissom said chuckling

"Genetics. House belonged to their mother. Donna's lived here alone since their mother died. Joan lived in Henderson. The real action's around back." Warrick told us and we made our way to the backyard. On the outside patio floor, there is broken glass everywhere. Markers are on the ground where evidence needs to be examined. Warrick shows us the broken glass door.

"If the highway was the dump site, this is the primary." Warrick said

"Makes sense. The blonde's lacerations were filled with glass." Grissom said

"She went through that door." I pointed out

"From inside out." Grissom said and we walk into the kitchen and look at the broken door. Warrick crosses under the police tape.

"To take out one of these doors you need some serious momentum." I said

"No doubt. I'm going to collect the glass. And then I'll start with the doorframe." Warrick told us

"How are you at solving puzzles?" Grissom asked him

"You're the puzzle guy." Warrick said and I laughed a little

"I have a hint for you. When they cool sheet glass, they lay it out on tin." Grissom told him

"So the side that kissed up to the tin will fluoresce under UV." Warrick said understanding what Grissom was saying

"Still going to be a long couple of days at the lab." I said

"I got some imprints on these blood spots here." Warrick said and Grissom and I both kneel to look at what Warrick's looking at. In front of marker #2, there's a partial shoe print in blood.

"Looks like the killer may have stepped in Donna's blood." Warrick said

"Or maybe her sister stepped in it. There was some blood on Joan Marks' right shoe." I said remembering looking Joan's right shoe.

"Hmm. That would place Joan at the house." Warrick said

"And establish a timeline." Grissom pointed out

"If Joan did step in Donna's blood that would mean that Donna was injured and bleeding while Joan was still walking around." I said

Grissom stands and walks into the kitchen, he stops to look at the refrigerator and notices the take out order sheets pined to the door. I also stand to see what he's looking at. Grissom puts on his gloves and opens the refrigerator door. Inside are containers of take-out food. He reaches in and opens the top container. He smells it and holds it out for me to smell.

"Sweet and sour pork." I said

"It smells fresh." He says and puts it back on the shelf. He grabs another opened container in the back of the refrigerator, smaller than the first. He smells it.

"More sweet and sour." He said and holds it out for me to smell, I immediately react to the age of the food.

"Mostly sour." Grissom said

"Single servings in the back, spoiled. Family sized boxes in front, one or two days old." I pointd out Grissom picks up another container and opens it. Inside there are four spring rolls.

"What do you think? Increase in appetite, or ... perhaps a guest?" He asked and I moved on to Donnas office I push the door to the study open and me and Grissom both walk inside. Against the far wall behind the door are a stack of fedex boxes. The computer on the desk is still on.

"Universal remote. She could do everything she wanted from this chair but cook a roast." Grissom said and sits down behind the desk.

"Well, we already know she cooks like I do - takeout on speed dial." I said, I wasnt one of those people who was big on cooking, last time I tried to it was when I came home to visit Grissom during college and I tried making us dinner but ended up with the smoke alarm going off and me and Grissom ordering take out and laughing about it. I riffle through the stack of catalogs on the desk, "Pottery barn, Lillian Vernon magnolia, Yafa Pen ... She's a catalogue junkie." I said

"Catalogues, the internet, mail order, takeout ... 1,200 miles on her car. Agoraphobic maybe? Or she just doesn't like people?" Grissom said and I smiled

"Ah, that's you talking." I said and Grissom looks at me, "I'll haul in her PC, check her e-mail look in on her social life." I said and turned around and looks at the bathroom, "Hey ... the toilet seat's up." I said to Grissom turns around and looks at the bathroom, "There was a man here." I pointed out to him.

Back at the station I see Brass turn the corner and walks rapidly down the hallway. I turn the corner behind Brass and shout to get his attention, when I get no response I rush to catch up with him and together we continue down the hallway.

"Hey, Brass. Heard the database kicked out a Temporary Restraining Order. Joan Marks against her old boyfriend." I told him

"I'll do you one better. The old boyfriend, Gavin Pallard had one against her." He told me

"Tit for tat."

"They both filed last month." Brass says and stops in front of a room, he turns to look at me, "Want to find out why?" He asks and I smile at the invitation.

"Don't mind if I do." I say and opens the door and we both enter the room.

"See this?" Gavin says and points to a small scar to the right of his chin, "Didn't get this french kissing. Joanie had a temper. Punctuated her sentences by throwing furniture. Made it hot, you know. We'd break up to make up."

"What about the last time?" Brass asked him

"Look, the whole T.R.O. business ... she'd been in and out of my house three times. Couldn't stay away."

"According to you. When did you see her last?" I asked him

"Yesterday. I dodged a coffee pot. She hit the road." He said

"What was she driving?"

"My Thunderbird. I'd lent it to her, and used my bike. But, um, you know ... I'd like it back now." He said

"When we find it." Brass told him

"Did she tell you she was going to her sister's?" I asked him

"No. Why would she go there? It's oil and water. And Joanie liked action. Real partier. Last party Donna went to was her third birthday." Gavin said

"What about you? You been to Donna's house recently?"

"No. Boring. Was always glued to her computer. Plus Joan thought Donna owed her rent and ... the house was in both their names, so ..." He said but I cut him off

"May I ... see the bottom of your shoes?" I asked

"Why?"

"Why not?" Gavin swings his legs up and rests his feet on the table, soles of his shoes facing me I use my flashlight and examine the bottom of his shoes and I find blood stains, "I like the shoes. I like them enough to get a warrant." I tell him

Later I'm working on Donna's computer and I click on "Mail Shop" and it takes me to Donna's email.

"Donna Marks was a telecommunicator. Liked to shop. Mail order, over the phone. I retrieved lots of email confirmations." I said to Grissom who looks at the monitor over my shoulder.

"If she shopped online why'd she place orders over the phone?" Grissom asked

"Need for human contact." I pointed out

"Without physical contact?"

"She spent time in chat rooms. Book clubs, home crafts collected fountain pens." I said

"Personal e-mails?"

"Only one buddy on her buddy list. Screen name's Apollo."

"Pull up his most recent." Grissom said but I was one step ahead of him

"That would be three days ago. "I know it sounds weird, but ... my life began when I first heard your voice when you said my name, it felt so right. Did you feel it, too?" I read the message out loud, "It's easy to wear your heart on your sleeve when you're not looking in his eyes. He said her name so their relationship must've extended beyond the computer." I told him

"So, what do we know about this "Apollo"?"

I pull up another screen, "You know that garbage those numbers at the bottom of every email?" I asked him

"Yeah."

"It's actually a unique number that registers the location of the sender's terminal." I told him

"An address?" He asked and I run a program to search the location for the IP Address, after a moment, the computer beeps that the IP Address has been "located". The computer spits out seven IP Addresses it blinks on screen as it locates the street address and location.

"Internet Protocol Address. CSI has access. Seven different IP addresses means he used seven different computers." I pointed out

"That's strange."

"Could be a network." I say and the computer beeps, "23000 Ganza Avenue, Ely, Nevada. Western Nevada Correctional Facility."

"Her greek god is in the slam." He says and I turn to look at him.

Grissom headed off the the prison and I was walking to check on Warrick when suddenly I was pulled into what looked like a broom closet. I looked up and saw Nick standing there with a grin on his face and I hit him on the chest lightly.

"Damn it you scared me." I told him and he smiled.

"Sorry, wasn't my intention." He said then leaned down and kissed me, I tried to pull away but I felt myself melt under his touch as he moved his hands from my waist to my back pulling me closer to him.

I finally gathered myself and pulled away, "You're going to get us in trouble mister." I said and he laughed.

"I couldnt help it, after my little talk with Grissom I needed to see you." He said and I looked at him.

"What talk? What happened?" I asked and he put his hands on my shoulders.

"Dont worry it wasnt bad, he basically told me that Ecklie has to talk to us but as far as you and me are concerned as long as we keep our relationship out of work and I am good to you he's okay with it." He told me and I jumped into his arms and kissed him deeply and he pushed me against the door, I moaned softly into his mouth and he pulled his face away.

"Although I would enjoy seeing where this goes we probably shouldnt be caught doing it here." Nick said and I sighed.

"You're right, we will just have to pick this up later." I said and gave him one more kiss and left the closet.

I got to the lab Warrick was in, "Hey."

"Hey." He said back

"How's the glass puzzle going?" I asked him

"Still putting it together. I'm just doing a trace on Donna Marks' clothing and I came across this fiber. Look at this cross section." He said and I lean in and look at what Warrick is holding.

"Triangular. That means it can't be clothing fiber." I said to him

"Yeah, short and coarse. Car upholstery?"

'Yeah ... but that still doesn't get us anything. We found both vics near the freeway. We've been thinking vehicle transport from the start." I said

"Well, it's from black upholstery. What color was the boyfriend's missing thunderbird?" He asked me

"I'll ask him ... and his lawyer. The blood from his shoe was consistent with Donna Marks' DNA- he lied. He was at the house." I informed him

"Really? What about the blood from Joan Marks' shoe?"

"Also a match. Joan and Gavin ... both stepped in Donna's blood." I told him

Later on I'm in the interigation room with Brass and Gavin.

"Fine, I went there." Gavin said

"We already know that." I pointed out

"We're looking for, "Fine I went there ... and..." Brass said

"My client went there after the fact. He was looking for his girlfriend - didn't find her" Gavin's lawyer said

"Right ... he found a crime scene." Brass said

"Broken glass a pool of blood." I said

"But you didn't call 9-1-1." Brass said to him

"I was scared. I took off. Besides, there was a restraining order against me."

"Gavin, what color's your car? Your missing Thunderbird?" I asked him

"Blue, why?"

"Interior?"

"Black ... did you find it?" He asked

"Not yet." Brass told him

"But we will." I said

After long couple of days we finally finished up the case and me and Nick went out to breakfast. Weeks went by and we had cases here and there, me and Nick had our meeting with Ecklie about our relationship and boy was that nerve racking. After he talked to us both seperately he decided that as long as we kept it out of the department he didnt see any reason to make either of us go to days. Everything was going great, me and Nick were happy, then suddenly something bad happened.

Me, Warrick and Sara are sitting at the break table, huddled over the latest "Crime Stopper" issue that was about Nick who happened to walk in as we were reading it.

"Who wrote this?" Warrik asked him

"You're kidding me, right?" Nick said

"Nick Stokes, Crime Stopper." Warrick says and Nick chuckles.

"You went Hollywood on me, man." Warrick told him

"And I quote, "in his off time, he enjoys creating and inventing toys." That's fascinating. What kind of toys do you make, Nick?" Sara asked him and I gave her a side glance

"I thought I got my hands on all those departmental newsletters. Where'd you get those?" He asked and the three of us looked up innocently at him.

"Greg." We all said

"Yeah, that figures. All right, listen, Grissom wants us to divide and conquer. Blond hair for you, Warrick." Nick said and hands Warrick a bag.

"I do love a blond." Warrick said and I laughed

"Sara, you're on phone records." He told her

"Yay." She said not enthused

"Katie, Grissom wants you to meet him at the scene." He told me and I sighed.

"Oh joy" I said and got up walking out of the room with Nick and he crumples the newsletter on his way out.

"Hey, I wasn't done reading that." I hear Warrick say behind us

"Yes, you are." Nick says and tosses it into the trash can as he leaves the room. I nudged him a little and he looked at me.

"You okay?" I asked him and he grabbed my hand.

"Yeah, I just dont like people digging around my life, especially now that everyone knows about us. I want our lives to be kept away from here." He told me and I gave his hand a squeeze as we got to the front door for me to head out.

"I know, and trust me the only people I really talk to about us are Cathrine and Sara but thats only because they are really the only girlfriends I have here. Nick I love you and no matter what our lives will stay our lives." I told him and he pulled me into a small kiss then I pulled back and looked at him.

"I love you too, you better get going or else Grissom's gonna hunt you down." He told me and I smiled at him giving him once last kiss on the cheek and left.

The next day I see Nick come into work looking out of it and when I stopped him and asked him what was up he told me about an email with pictures he got from his high school prom date and one of the pictures was his date laying on the toilet bowl after a wild night, it looked just like Jane Galloway's body.

Later on me, Cathrine and Sara were going over Jane Galloway's phone records.

"What about Jane's work history?" Cathrine asked sitting down at the table with her cup.

"Secretary at a brokerage firm. About three weeks from the day of her death she took a leave of absence." I told her

"Medical records?" Cathrine asked

"She saw Dr. Slater. Had a prescription for valium and librium." Sara says and shows the report to Cathrine who takes it and looks at it, "Severe anxiety due to personal reasons. One day back from leave, Jane quits her job. No notice. Hotel receipts show she checked into the Monaco for two nights." Sara hands the hotel receipts to Cathrine, "A week before that she goes on a frightened woman shopping spree. Hardware shop receipts for locks. Locksmiths. Alarm installations. Phone screeners. The voice on her answering machine- electronic. She change her telephone number. She cancels all but one of her credit cards."

"It's as if she's trying to make herself disappear." I pointed out

"Make no mistake. Jane Galloway was being stalked. Emotional terrorism at its finest." Sara said

"And her boyfriend had an alibi?" Cathrine asked

"Here's the, uh, worst part. Uh, I ran a phone check on all her incoming calls. Guess where they were coming from." Sara said and me and Cathrine looked at the phone record Sara gave us. We both look up shocked when we realize what Sara found.

"Inside her house." I said

We all split up and asked any utility companies if they had done any work on Jane Galloways house. Suddenly I hear on the radio about a CSI down and my phone rings, it's Warrick telling me Nick was thrown out of a window, I paniced, got in my car and drove to the hospital where they brought him. The doctor just finishes checking up on Nick who's asleep in the hospital bed. The doctor leaves and walks out of the room.

Me and Cathrine stand as the doctor exits Nick's room to give us an update.

"Concussion, two cracked ribs, sprained wrist, five stitches to the forehead. It could have been a lot worse." She told us

"But Nick's going to be all right?" I asked

"He needs rest. But I don't see why he can't go home relatively soon." She told us and Grissom thanked her.

"Damn it. Grissom, this guy was right there. I could have had him." Warrick said

"You helped out Nick. That was the right thing to do." Grissom told him

"Doesn't feel like the right thing."

"You know, Nick was alone. The Stalker could have killed him and didn't." Cathrine said

"Yeah, I wonder why. Let's go back over there." Grissom told Cathrine who is already walking down the hallway, Warrick straightens to follow.

"I'm going with you." He says but Grissom puts a restraining hand on his shoulder as he turns to leave.

"No, no. You need to calm down a little. Talk to Nick when he wakes up." He says to me, Sara and Warrick.

Later on th doctor says they are releasing Nick and she's walking with us as I'm pushing him in the wheelchair with Sara behind me and Warrick next to me.

"Now, these painkillers are the real deal, okay? Don't overdo it. Plenty of rest. No work for at least a week." The doctor hands the medication to me.

"Will do, thank you, doctor." I said and the doctor leaves.

"The gloves, you find them?" NIck asked

"Catherine thinks he might have got away with them. But, uh, Grissom did find some wacky video collection." Warrick said

"Of what?"

"Now, did you not just hear the doctor? You're supposed to rest. We're on it, okay?" I said putting a hand on his shoulder

"Yeah, relax, Ironside." Warrick said

Since me and Warrick had both our cars there I told him I would take Nick home and meet up with him and Sara at the lab. I got to Nick's house and helped him out of my car and up to the front door and inside. He took his coat off with my help and went over to the couch, as he sat down I went into his kitchen and got him a glass of water and set it down on the table in front of him.

"Hey come here." He said and lifted his arm for me to sit down with him, as I did he wrapped his arm around me and i tried my hardest not to push on him, "I'm sorry baby." He said and I looked at him.

"Sorry about what?" I asked him

"About caring you like that, I didnt think I was gonna survive being thrown out that window." He said and I put my hand on his face.

"Dont be sorry, you did survive and that is all that matters to me, I was scared as hell yes but you're still here, I'm not ready to lose you yet." I said and leaned my head up to kiss him, "Now as much as I would love to stay and take care of you I need to get back to the lab." I told him and he nodded his head, I gave him one last kiss and got up, he grabbed my hand and turned me around.

"Come by later?" He asked ad I leaned forward and kissed his cheek.

"You bet." I said standing up and leaving his house.

I walked back into the lab and saw Warrick and Sara heading towards the video lab and I jogged to catch up with them as we entered the room.

"How's it going?" Sara asked

"How's Nick doing?" Grissom asked me

"Well, groggy. How's the epic?" I asked

"Epic." Cathrine said

"Gotten any clues as to where this guy might be?" Warrick asked

"Not really, not yet."

"Archie, freeze it." Cathine told him and the video tape pauses, Cathrine points to the screen, "Do you see that behind him? To the left hand of the screen? Can you focus the pixels?" She asked him.

"Okay, we're now at 26 times magnification. Rendering at 1086 lines." Archie says and the image enlarges and clears, it's the article of Nick.

"That's the "Crime Stopper" article." I said

"Isn't our newsletter for in-house only?" Grissom asked

"Do you think he knows Nick?" Cathrine asked

"He may know him well enough to read his e-mail." Warrick said

"Found that photo of Nick and his prom date. Used Jane Galloway to emulate the photo?" Sara said

"Why would he do that? Why Nick?"

"Nick has satellite cable, right?" Sara asked me

"Lunar Cable- a hundred and fifty channels." Warrick answered for me

"Wait a minute we've been doing this the wrong way. We need to see the last tape." Grissom says and turns around to the stack of tapes on the table behind him. He digs out the last tape and hands it to Archie. "Archie, play this."

Video camera close up of Nigel Crane instantly appears on screen, "It's like he, he's ... he's the kind of guy I always wanted to, um ... to be. And that's why it's so great, because ... we're friends now. I feel like I can count on him, you know? And you know what? I think if it came right down to it he would lay his life down for me. Ask him. A-a-ask Nick. Nick, would you let me stop your heart?" I looked at the screen and I couldn't even speak, suddenly Grissom tells us we have to get to Nick's place and he was alling Brass to have him meet us there. Then Grissom calls Nick telling him about Nigel and from what I heard the psychic that was helping Grissom was at Nick's house. We get there as Nigel is being put in the back of a cop car and Nick and Brass are standing outside Nick's door talking, I felt so relieved to Nick that I didnt even care about the others seeing so I ran up to him and gently hugged him and he returned it kissing the top of my head and told me he was okay.

Later on we were in the observation room looking at Nigel through the glass, he's sitting alone at the table in the interrogation room continually murmuring the same line over and over again, "I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I? I am one, and who am I?"

"Why me?" Nick asked

"I don't think it was about you, Nick. Or Jane Galloway, for that matter. I think it was more about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. His premise is that social beings strive to belong. In Nigel's mind, Jane Galloway was someone he could control which was okay for a while but you ... you were someone he could actually become. See, Maslow's Fifth Tier of the Hierarchy is Self-Actualization. The problem for Nigel is that you would have to die in order for that to happen. Or else he would." Grissom said and in the room next door, Nigel stands up and slowly walks toward the two-way mirror.

"I am one, and who am I?"

"Twenty-five years to life, Nick. It's over." Sara told him

"It's not over for me. It's over for Jane Galloway." Nick said and I put my hand through his arm.

"Well, we should get back to the lab." Cathrine says and stands an putting a comforting hand on Nick's shoulder.

"Yeah." Grissom also stands. Warrick and Sara move toward the door and they slowly exit the room. I gave his arm a gentle squeeze and followed them and Nick stayed a little bit longer.

That night after we finished everything up I headed back over to Nick's but before I took the turn heading towards his place my phone rings and I look to see that it's Nick.

"Hey, I'm almost to your place." I tell him.

 _"Oh, I'm not at home."_

"Oh ok well where are you?" I asked

 _"I'm at your place"_ He tells me.

"Okay I'll be there in a few minutes" I tell him and hang up the phone then turn around and drove to my apartment.

I walk up the stairs and see Nick sitting by my door, I walk over to him and kneel down in front of him, "Hey, you okay?" I asked him knowing that it was a stupid question and he looked at me.

"Not really, I just couldn't be at my house tonight." He tells me.

"I understand, you can stay here as long as you want." I tell him and stand up offering my hand to him. We walked into my place and I took my coat off hanging it on the hook and Nick walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Do you need anything?" I asked walking over to the fridge and grabbed a couple waters.

He shook his head, "No, I just need you." He tells me and I walked over to the couch and sat down next to him and he put his arm around my shoulder.

"Look I know there's nothing I can say that wont sound like something we have all heard or said before, but it's going to be okay. You're still here, I'm still here, Nigel is locked away." I told him.

"I know, I know, I'm just glad he didnt try to hurt you, otherwise I would have killed him. Knowing that he killed Jane Galloway because she would have gotten in the way of me and him, if he would have done the same to you I-"

"Hey" I said cutting him off, "Don't worry about that, I love you for that I do, but dont, dont do this to yourself. Nothing is going to happen to me, and nothing is going to happen to you, not as long as I'm around." I said and he pulled me into a kiss, I felt everything in this kiss, love, worry, and happiness.

"I dont know where I would be right now without you." He said and I smiled.

"You would still be here, your to stubborn to die." I told him and he smiled.

"How can you be so perfect? You sit here telling me that I would be fine if I hadnt met you, or if I hadnt asked you out yet nothing in my life made sense to me until you came along." He said and I just looked at him, "Katie, it's not just what happened tonight that was the reason I didnt want to be at my house, it was also the fact that when we would wake up tomorrow you would have to come back here. Even though we dont live that far from each other I hate waking up next to you just to have you leave, so I guess what I'm trying to ask you is would you wanna move in with me?" He asked and I looked at him in shock.

"Nick I-Idont even know what to say," I said and he looked at me I put my hand on his face and kissed him, "I would love to move in with you, on one condition."

"Name it." he said.

"You get to tell Grissom." I said with a smile and he put his head down.

"You're evil." He said and I laughed.

"Yes I am, bt you love me anyways."

"I do, very much" He told me and kissed me.


	6. Chapter 6

**It started out as Friendship**

After I finally got all of my stff moved into Nick's house we got settled in to a good routine, when Nick told Grissom that he wanted me to move in with him I couldnt help but laugh at my uncles reaction but he untimately said he was okay with it.

A few weeks later we get called in on a case at a convention, me and Nick arrived at the scene to see Grissom already there.

"Is this some kind of convention?" I asked him

"Little People Convention. Every year they come from all over the world to a designated city. Socialize, network. It's their Prom, Olympics, and New Year's Eve all rolled into one." He told us and we made our way across the lobby. All around us, dozens of Little People mill about, the lobby a bustling as with any other convention. As we walk, a man in a wheelchair rides in the opposite direction toward us and he nearly runs into Nick

'Oh, hey. Excuse me." Nick says to him

"Don't think so, square jaw." The man say and leaves Nick wide-eyed and jaw hanging and I just shrugged at him.

"Grissom, how do you know this?" I asked Grissom

"I get the newsletter."

"Lawrence Ames, clothing salesman from phoenix. He's 35, four foot, five inches tall." Brass tells us as he accompanies us into the crime scene. We make our way up the stairs leading to the stage. Off on the side talking with an officer is the event corrdinator who found the body, "One of the, uh, convention organizers found him. She was checking out the stage. There's a fashion show tomorrow if you're interested. She looked up and saw him." He said as the body hanging from above is slowly lowered.

"Guy does a suicide in a public place. He was trying to make a statement." I said

"Suicide?" Grissom asked me

"It's a reasonable suspicion." I told him

"Suicide among any disability group is above average." Nick said

"Being a dwarf doesn't mean you're disabled Nick, It means you're ... short." Grissom says and the body stops just inches from the ground. "I think we've got a little murder."

I lift some fibers off of the deceased and put them in an envelope. The body of the deceased is resting on the gurney, the rope is still around his neck. David waits to accompany the body back to the Lab for processing.

"I got some fibers here. Possibly secondary." I said and Nick is walking back up to the stage and he's carrying a cord of rope.

"This rope was identical to the rope around the victim's neck. It's used as a hand rail." Nick says and David prepares to cut the rope loose but Grissom stops him.

"Wait, David. Got a hair in the knot." He told him

"Killer's in the rope." I said

"I want to preserve this as is, so cut higher." Grissom told David

"Yes, sir." David moves the knife up higher on the rope he was about to cut. He cuts the rope and the body falls back flat on the gurney.

Later on me and Grissom go and talk to the event cordinator whos at a machine in the casino and I put on a pair of latex gloves.

"So, would you mind if we tape-lifted your shirt? Combed your hair for evidence?" I asked her

"Evidence of what?" She asked

"Well, the first person at a crime scene often turns out to be a viable suspect." I answered

"I'm the one the found his body. I'm the one that called it in."

"If you're innocent it'll, rule you out." I tell her and she reluctently nods her head

"Go ahead." She says and I dig into my kit to get my stuff out as Melanie continues to play the machine, "Does he ever talk?" She asked me and I looked at Grissom

"Yeah. At, uh, random intervals." I told her

"I was admiring your reaching tool." Grissom told her

"I have one I use to wipe my tush with. Would you like to take a look at that, too?" Melanie told him and I smiled as I collected samples.

"Hey, if the world doesn't adapt itself to you, you have to adapt yourself to it, right?" He told her

"Yeah. You know, you probably think I'm cold. Pulling slots after I found Lawrence up there. This is the convention. Everything moves at warp speed." Melanie said

'I'm done. Thank you." I told her with a genuine smile and she gets up and off of her seat. She starts to leave then turns around.

"You know, fifty-one weeks in your hometown with nothing but average-sized people. I have to fit a lifetime into this week. We all do. Business connections, gambling, romance." She told us

"Excuse me. Did Lawrence have any problems in those areas?" Grissom asked her

"Romance? Not at all. Lawrence was a pseudo. He could have his pick of any girl in here." She says and leaves. I take off my gloves and watch her walk away.

"What's a pseudo?" I asked Grissom

"Dwarfs with pseudoachondroplasia have features and head size like normal people. Dwarfs with achondroplasia have shortened limbs and enlarged heads." He told me

"Different types of dwarfs, different social status?"

"Hey ... discrimination isn't just for tall people." He says and I look at him.

We made our way to Lawrences hotel room and Grissom removes the crime scene tape across the hotel room door. He opens the door and and we find a young woman sitting on the bed with her back is to the door.

"Excuse me." Grissom says and the woman turns around, "Isn't this, uh, Lawrence Ames's room?"

"Yes." The woman says

"Who are you?" Grissom asked her

The lady sighs and gets up off the bed and approaches us and we notice she's just as tall as us.

"I'm his fiancée. We always got those looks. I'm five-seven, in case you were wondering." The woman says.

"Our concern isn't your height; it's your proximity. You're standing in a potential crime scene." I told her and Grissom puts his kit down and pulls out the nearest chair.

"Would you please sit down here? We want to keep the contamination to a minimum." Grissom tells her and I take out my cell phone

"This is CSI KGrissom. We need a uniform in room 312 right away. Thanks." I say and hang up my phone

"Didn't the police tell you not to come in here?" Grissom asked her.

"Yes. But I wanted to be near Lawrence's things." she says

"And, um... these are Lawrence's things?" Grissom asked her

"Yes." She says

"Katie?"

"Yeah?" I moved in to examine the mark on the wall, "Gouge is deeper at the bottom than the top." I said

"So the strike was made coming down." Grissom said and goes back to the reaching tool and picks it up and looks at it. I find a piece of broken plastic on the floor near the wall and pick it up.

"Grissom." I said holding up the piece and Grissom holds the reaching tools up to it and they match, Grissom takes the plastic from me and I look up at the woman

"Did you and Mr. Ames have an argument, say last night?" I asked her

"No." She says and I look at her

"You don't believe me?" She asked

"Well, right now, we believe the evidence." Grissom told her holding up the two pieces.

Grissom looks down at the champagne glass next to the bucket and bottle on the table, "Is the lipstick on this champagne glass yours?" Grissom asked her

"No champagne for me. I'm ... pregnant. Only seven weeks." She says

"Is this your computer, or Lawrence's?" I asked her

"Lawrence's."

"We're going to have to take it with us." I tell her and she nods.

In the lab, I go through Lawrence's laptop contents and I seea chat between him and some other woman I click on an attachment and a picture of an attractive dark-haired woman appears on screen, I stand and leave heading to the interigation room.

"Jessica, you knew Lawrence was having an on-line affair with another woman didn't you?" I asked her

"You logged on at times when Lawrence was at work. We checked his work records." Brass told her

"A lot of girls liked Lawrence. He was funny and smart and sweet."

"Danielle was different. She was his size. She was ... perfect."

"We found your skin cells on the rope that hung Lawrence." Nick told her

"You're making that up." She said to him

"No, I'm not."

"Our court order...your blood." Grissom aid holding up a piece of paper

"I did not put a noose around my fiancé's neck." She said

"Then explain how your skin cells got on the rope." Nick said

"I can't."

Later on me and Nick walk in on Grissom conducting a test on the strand of hair found in the rope.

"Hey. Confronted the fiancée; she stonewalled us." I told him

"Brass told her not to leave town." Nick says and looks at me, "He sounded a bit like Jack Lord, don't you think?" He asked me and I smiled.

"Well, she can go wherever she wants to. She didn't do it. Take a look. Hair from the knot." Grissom said and we move to look through the microscope and see the hair.

"They look thin." I said

"Diameter's 60% less than normal. Tensile strength is also way below normal." Grissom said

"You have a cross section?" Nick asked

"Mm-hmm." Grissom adjusts the microscope and we look back at the sample.

"Hmm. No pigment at the central core. No color." Nick said

"Cartilage Hair Hypoplasia. C.H.H. It's characterized by fine, brittle body hair. It's an extremely rare syndrome. It's a form of Dwarfism." Grissom said

"Okay. So, back to the midgets." Nick said and me and Grissom both look sharply at him

"Nick ... "Dwarfs" or "Little People." Grissom says and Nick nods at the correction.

"You'll need to know what to look for. So, I'll put together a list of C.H.H. Attributes." Grissom told him

"Well, you better do it fast. The convention's over in two days. After that, the "Little People" go home and we lose all our suspects." Nick said.

Later I'm in the AV lab with Archie and Danielle's photograph is up on screen.

"We're looking for anything in the picture that might give us a way to find her. Something in the background that determines location a useful reflection, anything." I tell him and Archie takes a good look at the picture and laughs a little.

"Huh ... oh, I get it. This is like a test, right?" HE asked

"What do you mean?" I asked him

"Individual hair shadows are amorphous when they should be distinct." He says and stands moving to the screen where he points to Danielle's right cheek bone. A box frame on screen marks the points Archie emphasizes, "In these two areas - here and here- they're on the same focal plane but this one's sharp and this one's fuzzy."

"This picture's a fake?" I asked

"A composite. A very good one." He tells me and I page Grissom to the lab.

"This explains why nobody ever saw her. She only exists in pixels. Nat King Cole." Grissom said

"Excuse me?" I asked

"Archie would you separate the composite elements, please?" Grissom asked him

"Yup." Archie de-composites the photograph, "The image was built out of these."

"Now if you could, pull up a photo of the victim, gray scale. There's a theory in art that the Mona Lisa was really a feminized version of Leonardo Da Vinci himself." Grissom said

"Concept suggests ... Deep down we're all narcissists?" I asked him.

"Yeah. What attracts us the most is ourselves." He told me

"Scale to match the original picture with Danielle." I tell Archie and Brass walks in, Archie works on the two photographs, matching it by hand, "Danielle is a virtual woman created to attract and lure Lawrence Ames ... away from his fiancée, maybe?" I asked

"Boy, do I have good timing, or what? I did a little checking with the phone company. In the past year, Lawrence Ames received over two hundred calls from Melanie Grace." Brass said.

"The same woman that found him dead." I said

"He got call-blocking against her two months ago."

"Well, that's interesting. That's the same time Danielle started sending him instant messages." I pointed out

Nick comes back from the convention to tell us about one of the man in the wheelchair who's wheelchair raises up and we find out its Jessica Marcus's father.

Me and Nick return to the crime scene to look for some answers. We slowly make our way up the stage to where the body was discovered.

"Hey, did you get anything else off that laptop?" He asked me

"No, a bunch of the files were corrupted. Archie's taking another run at them." I said and Nick looks around the stage and out at the audience and he sighs. I walk under the lighting and look up, Nick joins me.

"Victim was paralyzed, couldn't fight back. Kevin Marcus puts the rope around his neck makes a slip knot." Nick said

"And ties off the other end on the truss even though there is no way he could have reached it." I finish.

"No way he could've reached it." He says and I turn my back and look out at the empty audience seats I hear Nick sigh, I turn around to see Nick kneeling down.

'Nick, what are you doing?" I asked with a smile

"Changing my perspective." Nick said on his knees underneath the lighting, he looks up and tries to grab the lights above, "Oh, man. Can you imagine going through life at this height?" He asked

"They do okay. If the world doesn't adapt itself to you, you..."

"...adapt yourself to it." He says and nods, he looks back up at the lighting above, "Where's Grissom?" Nick calls to me.

We walk up behind Grisom who's watching the conventioners, "Grissom?" I said and he turns to look at us.

"We know who did it." Nick said.

After we arrested Jessica Marcus's father for the murder of Lawrence me and Nick headed home and Grissom goes to the School for the Hearing Impaired. We get home and after I take off my shoes I flop down on the couch and put my feet up on it and Nick comes over lifting my legs up, sits down and puts them on his lap. He takes on foot and starts to rub it and I lay my head back.

"Penny for your thoughts?" He asked me and I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"I don't get how someone like that can kill his daughters fiance just beause he was cheating on her." I said and Nick put down my foot and grabbed the other.

"I dont know, what I do know is I would never do that to you." He said and I smiled at him.

"Well you better not, Grissom knows a lot about bugs, he can make you dissappear." I said and he chuckled then put down my foot and helped me sit up and I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Don't worry, I have an amazing woman, I wouldnt dream of hurting her." He said and I kissed him, he lifted me up and he brought me into the bedroom.


	7. Chapter 7

**It started out as Friendship**

Few nights later me Warrick and Sara walk across the club toward the steps to the pit where our crime scene was.

"I hung out here a few times." Warrick said and I gave him a shocked look

"Never been." Sara said

"Your knucklehead boyfriend never took you on the party circuit?" He asked her

"Uh, pass." She said.

"What about you Katie? Ever been here?" Warrick asked me and I shook my head.

"I'm not answering that." I said and he grinned.

"Dont need to, that answered it for me." He said and I gave him a slight push while laughing, "That's cool about Vegas. It's Monday: Rain at the Palms; Tuesday: Eden at studio 54; Wednesday: Raw at the Luxor; Thursday's Baby's..." He said and we pass the guard at the top of the stairs and make our way down the stairs into the pit.

Grissom moves the ALS light away and continues to look around. Sara opens her kit and removes a pair of gloves to put on, Grissom continues to look around the floor of the pit and sees more body fluid

"There's seminal fluid all over the place."

"Is this a dance club or a sex club?" Sara asked and Warrick picks up a discarded underwire bra.

"A little of both. Don't you love this town?" He asks and bags it, I shake my head

"Whatever you say, Superfly." I tell him and he snorts.

"You guys smell that?" Grissom asks us

"Mm-hmm." I said picking up the discarded underwear by marker #10

"Smells like strawberries."

"It's the foam." I tell him and Warrick looks at me and laughs.

"Reminds me of the Mirage. Steve Wynn didn't like the smell of the volcano erupting, so he changed the fuel mixture. Now it smells like a piña colada." He says and moves to item #11 and picks up a clear stiletto-heeled shoe.

Brass walks into the pit, "Hey. I got a line on our vic. Trey Buchman, booked a room at The Sphere. E-wing, room 937"

Grissom and Sara head to the hotel and I get a phone call from Cathrine asking me to meet her at Industrial Road, apparently her ex husband Eddie's car went off a bridge with her daughter in the car so I rushed over there.

I arrived and saw Cathrine sitting in the ambulence with Lindsey, I gave her a sympathetic nod and went over to the car being pulled out of the water and started looking around. I see Cathrine approache the car and head for the driver's side, I looked around the inside of the car and see the debris on the car floor and the blood stains on the passenger seat and I open the passenger side door, Cathrine opens the driver's side door and looks around. I see Cathrine pick up a blue vial.

"Drugs." I said

"Knowing Eddie's taste in women, I'd say that's a good bet." She said and I looked at her

"Hey, Catherine? You want to give me that?" I asked her and she looked at me, "You shouldn't be handling evidence. You're not on the case." I tell her, I felt bad saying it but I didnt want to take any chances.

Back at the station lounge, I watch Cathrine who's sitting next to her daughter as me and Detective Vega talk to Lindsey.

"So, it was just the two of you?" I asked her Lindsey turns and nods her head at me. She immediately turns back to look at Cathrine.

"This lady you told us about - the one who was driving, the one with the pink hair - where did you meet her?" Vega asked her but she doesn't look at, she looks at her mother.

"I don't know." Lindsey says but Cathrine interupts

"You remember, Lindsey. Just think about it." Lindsey looks at Cathrine and Det. Vega and I also look at Cathrine then back at each other.

"I fell asleep in the car, and I woke up when we stopped." Lindsey said

"Was this at a house?" Vega asked her.

"No. It was a building." the little girl said

"Was it an apartment building... maybe...or maybe an office building?" I asked her

"I don't know."

"Why did you stop there?" Cathrine asked her and Lindsey looks at her mom.

"Daddy said he had a meeting. He told me to stay in the car and keep the doors locked."

"You mean he left you in the car alone." Cathrine said

"Catherine..." I started to say but Lindsey spoke up

"Mom, mom, it's okay. I said I could take care of myself. I told him I could stay in the car. Just don't be mad at him. He didn't do anything wrong."

"It's okay, Lindsey. Nobody's mad at anybody." I told her and looked at Cathrine then stood up, "Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked her and she gets up and leaves the room in a huff, she closes the door and paces the hallway outside. I sit in the seat vacated by Cathrine, directly in front of Lindsey, "It's okay." I tell her then me and Vega resume questioning Lindsey.

"This lady was at the building?" Vega asked her

"This lady with the pink hair - was she your father's girlfriend?" I asked her

"Maybe. Well, he was mad at her. And then they, they were running back to the car. Daddy was holding his stomach." She said I see her look out at Cathrine who is looks sadly into the room and their eys meet, I see Cathrine holding her phone away from her ear and I knew what it was, Eddie was dead.

I was in the lab and Leah was telling me what was in the blue vial, "Got a vial full of blue boogers."

"GHB with food coloring. That's a date rape drug." I said

"Not anymore. You mix it with the right stimulant, like meth, you got a great party drink." She said

"Everyone's a chemist. Thanks." I said and see Cathrine in the room and she watches as I walk on by.

Im in the garage later on examaning the car and notice the blood stain on the front passenger seat. I check under the floor mat, the I lift the arm rest to check inside the compartment. Finding nothing unusual, I close it and resume looking at the car ceiling. I see a piece of folded paper tucked in the overhead visor and opened it. It appears to be a color proof for a CD cover for Candeece. I check the CD slot and pull out a Demo CD from Sahara Sound.

Me and Vega head to the studio and talk to the owner.

"Yeah, I can put you in touch with her Manager, Eddie Willows. Guy owes me a call. Make that five calls. If you talk to him, tell him he's got, like, eight hours of studio fees due. The penalties are running, okay?" He tells us

"We've already seen him. He's in the morgue." I tell him

"Oh, that makes sense why he wasn't here last night. High-strung singer, no manager, that's always trouble." He says

"She started ragging on me. I didn't need the hot air, so I came back in." The sound engineer said, "That's a cut, Enrique. Let's take it from the bridge." He said to the band in the other room

"Eddie was just in it for the quick score. Cut a demo, sell a contract, get a ride on the charts and you just ride that wave." The owner said

"This girl was different." the sound guy told him

"Yeah, he was banging her."

"Yeah, but he had something for her, knowing how much potential she had. I never seen Eddie so dedicated. Nothing was going to stop him from making her a star." The engineer said

"Except maybe a .22 round in his gut." Vega pointed out

"Stop, stop, stop. That's a cut, Enrique." The sound guy said to the band

"Whoa. It sounds good from where I'm standing- what's up?" The owner said to him

"The problem isn't the vocals, man, it's the extra bass line I keep getting from the village people outside with that damn jackhammer." The sound guy told him and Vega looks at me.

"All right, let's pick it up from the second chorus." Sound guy says to the band

"Aren't recording studios supposed to be soundproof?" I asked

"Lady, if the guy standing next to you is Clive Davis, instead of a cop, it would be." The owner told me

"After Candeece left, did you guys keep recording?" I asked him ignoring the comment

"Um, yeah, a few more hours. We were redoing a drum track." He told me and I looked at Vega.

"We're going to need to take a look at those tapes." He told them

Later on me and Vega interview Candeece

"Eddie's my manager. It's no big secret. We were supposed to be working last night, and the jerk blew me off." She said

"So you never saw him last night?" Vega asked her

"No."

"What happened to your wrist?" I asked her sensing the lie

'Oh, uh ... I got, uh ... um ... because, uh ..."

"According to Desert Palms Emergency Room, you came in last night with a fracture of the ulna. It's a common injury in car accidents - air bag specific." I told her, "Air bags are packed with cornstarch or talc. It helps them deploy. It also wreaks havoc on the eyes."

"We know you saw Eddie last night. We know that you were driving his car." Vega said

"It all happened so fast, you know? One minute I was, I was just outside getting some air and thinking, you know? And then... the next, my manager is stumbling towards me, bleeding." She said telling us another lie about how Eddie told her he was shot and her comforting Lindsey saying they were going to bring him to the hospital

"Sounds pretty heroic." I said

"Not really. When you're intimate with somebody, you can't imagine life without them. We were partners. I loved him. I thought I was going to die." She said

"There were two other people in the car." I pointed out

"That's what I meant, you know? I thought we were all going to die." She said

"Search and Rescue found Eddie's body 100 yards downstream." Vega told her.

"See, that's where it gets a little less heroic-we found Lindsey alone in a sinking car." I told her and I was starting to get anry.

"I tried to get Eddie out. He was unconscious, and that...that kid kept screaming..and... the current was really strong and we got swept downstream. What was I supposed to do?" She asked

"Get to a phone, call the cops, call an ambulance, anything, actually...other than what you did." I told her trying to hold back jumping oer the table and grabbing her.

"I am just one person. Eddie is my priority, not that...that stupid, screaming little brat." Before I could even speak up Cathrine bursts into the room

"You even think about my daughter again, I'll kill you. I will kill you." Cathrine says to her and I get up trying to get her out of the room.

"Catherine."

"I will hunt you down and put...I will put you in the ground!" Cathrine yelled

"Catherine?" I said and grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her out of the room.

"What the hell are you doing? Do you know where you're at right now?" I asked her

"I've been here a lot longer than you..." She said

"And you should know better." I told her cutting her off

"And I wouldn't have to be here if you were doing your job properly." She spat at me

"There is a difference between me doing my job and you wanting to do it for me. You don't want to get the job done. What you want, right now, is revenge." I told her

"You're going to tell me what I want, huh?"

"Go home, Catherine. Be with your daughter. She's the one that needs you." I tell her and walked away leaving Cathrine in the hallway.

In the AV lab Archie is cleaning up the studio recording, "Well, modern recording's all digital. Each track's recorded in a separate data file. By looking at the file modification times, we can approximate which tracks were recorded near the time of the shooting." He says

"Catherine left Eddie at 5:30 P.M. Lindsey's first call was logged in at 10:55." I told him

"Let's see, well...only two tracks were laid down during that time interval."

"Let's look at the drum track." I tell him and he puts the drum track on the monitor and speaker.

"There's the kit drum."

"So any irregularity in the pattern could be from an outside source." I said

"Yeah. Right here. A sudden change in amplitude." Archie said

"Can you isolate it?" I asked

"Yeah." Archie replays the portion of the sound track he highlighted. Inside the drum track, there's a distant bang.

"Sounds like gunfire." I pointed out

"I'll play it again." Archie replays the portion again. It definitely sounds like gunfire, "Let me take out the drums." He separates the sounds and plays it again, the first sound is gunfire. After that, there's a second, faint-whirring sound.

"What is that?" I asked him

"Feels like an engine. V-twin, maybe. Must have been somebody else there. You think we got a witness?"

"Or a suspect." I say and VEga enters the room

"Hey ... I was able to pull the phone records for Candeece. She made six calls that night. The first five went to Eddie." He said

"But not the last one. You got an address?" I asked

I take a sample of something blue stuck to the drain in the sink at Kiner's house, outside kiner is being questioned by Vega and I walk out of the garage.

"So you do remember the call." Vega asked him

"I like your Harley." I tell him and headed to the back of the SUV where I process the sample on a SENSIR machine.

"Look, Kiner, you're on parole; you got no rights looking at two strikes. I'm not trying to pull a fast ball on you, but it's not the first time you've talked to Candeece." Vega told him.

"So maybe me and Candy are friends." He says

"Were friends. You guys used to talk once a day. Then she stopped calling you, until last night." Vega said

"Mr. Kiner, do you own this house?" I asked him

"My father left it to me." He answered

"Your father have a drug problem? We found GHB in your garage. "Georgia home boy." I said

"Tell us what happened with Eddie." Vega said

"Candy needed "help." He says and gives us th play by play on what happened with him, Candeece and Eddie, "I got on my hog. I got the hell out of there. What do you expect me to do? Go back to the joint for her?" He asked and I exchanged looks with Vega.

"Cuff him." Vega said.

After that we interview Candeece again.

"Kiner is a drug dealer." She said

"Your drug dealer." I told her

"No. Not anymore. Eddie got me off all that stuff." She said

"You called Kiner. He came here." Vega told her

"I tried to call Eddie. He had his phone off. He was with his pain-in-the-ass daughter and that psycho ex-wife of his. I was just alone in front of a microphone with my whole career riding on a demo." She said and I bit my tongue,"I thought Eddie wasn't coming. I guess he was just late." She said

Cathrin enters the lab as I'm there wrapping up the paperwork, evidence in packages around me, "So you're calling it?"

When I heard her voice I looked up and turned around, "I got two liars and no murder weapon...and no choice. I'm going to nail the singer on child endangerment and fleeing the scene, and the dealer goes up on possession for sale."

"What a great bedtime story for my little girl." Cathrine says

'Cath, I did my best." I tell her, she doesn't say anything, just leaves.

I get home after turning everything in and see Nick is already there, I walk in the front door and NIck comes out of the hallway giving me a smile.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked me walking over, I shook my head and he pulled into a hug, I let go when he did and started crying, "Hey, it's okay." He said rubbing his hand on my back.

"I just...to think about Lindsey having to go through that, watching her dad suffer right in front of her, then find out he's dead, and Cathrine...I couldnt give her the justice she needs." I said and he hugged me tighter.

"I know baby, I know, I love you for trying and Cathrine does too, she's just going through a loss right now." He tells me and I looked up at him, he wipes away the tears flling down my cheeks.

"I know, but if anything like that ever happened to you, I would work like hell to find out what happened." I told him and he kissed my forehead.

"Same here" he told me and we went and sat on the couch snuggling up to each other.

A few weeks later after Grissom is in court for a case we have to reexamine the evidence and Ecklie, who is now in charge of the department, informs Grissom that he is splitting up the graveyard shift. So now Nick and Warrick report to Cathrine and me, Sara, Greg and Sofia, the former dayshift supervisor, now report to Grissom. We get called into a case where we all get to work together, the death of casino mogul Bruce Eiger.

Me and Greg arrive at the scene and the garage door opens revealing Grissom standing there.

"Question. You come home, see your husband lying in the driveway. What do you do?" He asks us

Greg shrugs, "Is that a trick question?"

"Stop, jump out, run over to him." I said

"Or take the time to pull into the garage and park and lock your car?" He sayd and I turn and look at Greg who shrugs at me.

As Sara, Greg and Grissom are in the garage I walk up to the second story and see Nick there who is examining the second story balcony.

"Hey. Whatever happened, it happened right here." He said and Warrick walks up to him to look at the planter.

"Planter could've been broken during the struggle or been used as leverage." he said

"Well, if he was pushed, they'd have to be strong enough to get that big boy over the railing." I said

"Well, I didn't see any trace on Bruce's hands. I don't think those are his prints." Warrick said looking at the handprints on the concrete railing.

"Well, maybe the killer hung out enjoying the fruits of his labor." Nick said.

Catherine, Nick, Warrick and I walk back into the house through the hallway.

"Well, I don't see any signs of struggle in this hallway." Warrick said

"No." Nick said

"The only clue is no clue." Cathrine said and we walk into the room at the end of the hallway which turned out to be a study.

"The inner sanctum." I said

"If these walls could talk, huh?" Nick says and I see a glass on the desk

"I wish they would." Warrick said

"Yeah, no doubt." Nick replied

I walk over to the glass and sniff it, "Scotch ... and milk." I said and we look around the study.

"Maybe the guy had stomach trouble, you know, ulcers." Nick said

"Well, you get as good as you give." Warrick says and picks up the cigar in the ashtray and smells it, "Who smokes half a cuban?"

Nick finds a couple of handprints on the wooden floor, "Well, whoever was outside might've been in here, too. I've got some greasy handprints, look very similar to the ones on the railing."

"What are they doing on the floor?" Cathrine asked

"I'll take a sample." Nick said

Later on me and Nick arrive back at the mansion to meet up with Warrick, Cathrine and Grissom, we get to the top of the second landing and see a hidden passageway.

"You first." Nick said to me and I smirked at him.

"Are you only saying that so you can look at my ass on the way on?" I asked him and he walked up to me.

"Well yes, but I cant help it, I always look at it." He said and I shook my head, got down and crawled through with Nick behind me. As we got through I stood up and was shocked at what I saw, a nursery.

Nick crawls in through the passageway, "Whoa. Who's your mommy?"

"The true inner sanctum." I said and Catherine snaps photos of the adult-sized pacifiers while Nick finds the pink nursing gown and holds it up.

"Hey, maybe we're looking for the hand that rocks the cradle." Nick said

"I think that Bruce just wanted the same thing as every other guy." I said

"Nurturing?" Grissom asked

"Easy access." I said and saw Nick smile.

Grissom opens a drawer and finds the enema bottles, "Well...this could explain the repeated insertions." He says and Catherine snaps photos of the adult-sized bassinet.

I pushed aside the clothes in the closet and find a security panel, "I think this was originally used as a panic room. Eiger's got a massive security system here, motion and site sensitive. No video, though." I said

"Well, I guess we won't get to see who swaddled him." Cathrine said and Nick opens the toy chest and looks inside.

"Well ... there is a hard drive. I'll get it back to the lab." Warrick said and I nodded at him.

Nick closes the toy chest and picks up the adult-sized pacifier, "I just don't get it, man."

"What, you never had a transitional object when you were a kid? A stuffed animal or a blanket?" Grissom said and I looked at Nick

"No. I mean, I had a wooby, but who didn't?" He said and Catherine's eyes widen as I hold back a laugh.

"Oh, is that that blue thing that's in your locker?" Warrick asked him

Nick chuckles, "Don't even." he looks over at me and I shake my head smirking

"Seventy percent of children have something. Helps them with separation anxiety." Grissom said and looked at me, when I was a kid I only had one safety net, him. Grissom opens the trash bin, "Maybe Bruce Eiger never got over his."

"I got a question. Where would you buy something like this? I mean, this crib and this rocking horse isn't exactly, uh, regulation size." Warrick asked and Grissom picks up the white trash bag and looks at the emblem on the outside.

"Forever Baby. For the child in all of us." Grissom reads off the bag.

Catherine opens the refrigerator and sees the bottles of milk on the shelf. She picks up one, "Do you think they do takeout?"

Me, Grissom and Nick head over to the adult baby store, and we walk over to the counter.

"Howdy." The clerk says to us

"Well, howdy. I was wondering, do you carry adult diapers?" Grissom asked her

"Oh, we sure do." She says and looks at Grissom, "What are you, about a 34, 36?" she asks and Nick and I both look at each other and smile

"Well, they're not for me." Grissom tells her

"Oh." She looks at Nick, "Well, aren't you lucky to have such a nice daddy?" I snorted and Nick's smile fades fast. Grissom turns and looks at Nick with a huge smirk on his face. Nick glances at Grissom, then me then at the cashier and smiles.

"I'm going to have a look around." He says clearing his throat and steps away from the counter, I join him and we start looking around. I still have a smile on my face and he looks at me, "Dont even start" he warns and I nudge him walking away.

Back at the lab me and Nick are examining the toy chest from the vic's nursery.

"This is the same toy box they sell at Forever Baby, except the one in the store was twice as big on the inside." Nick tells me

"Well, he did like his secret spaces." I said to him.

"Yep." He said and we unscrewed the screws from the box, "All right." he said and we removed the side paneling, "Whoa." Hidden inside the toy box are files, we put the paneling aside and remove the rest of the wood, "Bingo." Nick said and we look at the labels on the file folders, "Sy Magli ... Sam Braun ... Rory Atwater?"

"Sheriff Rory Atwater?" I asked

"Looks like it. Along with some gaming commissioners, judges, pro athletes." Nick says chuckling,

I pick up a photo of a baby and looks at it, "No name. Just a date, 12-20-01." I said and Nick looks at another photo.

"Well, apparently, Sy liked the spectrum-" Nick said

As the case finished I told Nick I was going to spend some time over at Grissom's and have dinner with him. Grissom was in his kitchen cooking and I was sitting at the counter across from him with my wine glass.

"You know...I dont think I ever thanked you." I said to him and he looked at me.

"Thanked me for what?" He asked

"For always being there for me, not just after my parents died but before that when my dad was..." I stopped, I was always going to be haunted by my past, "I regret every day that I put you through hell when you took me in."

"You acted out of grief, anger, teenage rebelion. I never blamed you for that Katie." He said.

"I know that, but after what happened at that party I wanted to go back and do things differently, yeah I was able to graduate, went to college, and turned my life around, but looking back at who I was and how I treated you. Thats gonna stay with me forever." I said and Grissom put down the knife he was using and walked over to me.

"Don't ever apologize for hat you did in the past, you learned from it, grew from it and it made you the strong woman you are now and that all that matters to me." He said and I stood up and embraced him in a hug.

"I love you uncle" I said to him and he returned my hug.

"I love you too Katie." he said and went back to cooking dinner.


	8. Chapter 8

**It started out as Friendship**

It's been a week since my dinner with Grissom and everything was going great, until one night when Nick got called into work and it was my day off. After a few hours of cleaning around the house I get a phone call from Grissom, Nick was missing.

I got to the scene and saw Grissom and Cathrine there. I hear rustling coming from the dumpster and Catherine stands up inside, she looks around and sighs, "Dumpster's clean." she says getting out of the dumpster and walks over to me and Grissom, "No apparent blood or body parts."

"Take a look at this." Grissom indicates to the pool of blood, "This seems contrived to me. The blood pool is too perfect. There's no splatter. Like somebody placed these entrails."

"A lure. To grab Nick." I said

"David, get this stuff to the doc." Cathrine says to David

"Look, I'm ... I'm really sorry I didn't get here sooner. Maybe if I had..." David said and i saw guilt on his face.

"We're going to get him back, David." Cathrine says to him and looks at me, I give her a nod and see Ecklie duck under the crime scene tape and heads over to us.

"Gil, Katie, Catherine. I want you to know, as far as I'm concerned, lab's only got one case tonight. Same for the rest of the department." He tells us (

"Thanks, Conrad." Grissom says and Warrick drives up to the scene, his siren and lights flashing and he gets out of his car.

"Hey, what do you need me to do?" He asks and one of the search dogs barks after sniffing Nick's vest, they take off and Warrick follows.

Back at the lab I go over my findings of the cup and fake evidence bag with Grissom and Sara.

"I swabbed the seal for epithelials, but there were no prints on the outside of the bag." Sara told him

"What about Nick's camera?" He asked

"No fingerprints. There were some photographs, mostly generals. There were a few detail shots of entrails and trash. But no lucky grabs of anybody else at the scene." I said to him

"I don't think we're gonna get lucky with this guy. He knows how to work clean." Grissom said and heads out of the lab. Later we are all standing around looking at the evidence we have.

"The Expedition truck left the area around 11:15. Definitely in a hurry. Took a right off Koval onto Tropicana, crossed Las Vegas Boulevard onto 215 east. And then it drove off the grid." Warrick said

"At least we have a general direction."

"Great, so Nick could be anywhere from Green Valley to Seven Hills to Arizona." I said frustrated

"Assuming he was in that truck." Greg pointed out

"Well, according to Hodges, the white fibers on Nick's vest were cotton with traces of ether..." Cathrine said

"Ether?" Sara asked

"Yeah."

"That's old school." Sara said

"Yeah, stuff is volatile. Flammable. Outside of meth cooks, no one uses it anymore." Warrick said

"People use what they know." Grissom told us

"All right, so, where are we on possible suspects?" Cathrine asked

"So far, none of Nick's active or recent cases stands out. And his old stalker's still bend bars." Greg said

"Maybe it's a random act." I said

"Well, that's possible. Because whoever staged the crime scene couldn't have known that Nick was going to respond." Cathrine said

"Yeah, it was just bad luck he did." Warrick said and Grissom looks at the photo of the coffee cup.

"Sara, what about the coffee cup?" Grissom asked her

"No DNA or prints on the cup or in the bag." She answered and turns to look out at the hallway at the rising voices outside. We hear Hodges and another man yelling in the hallway.

"Don't touch the edge of it!" Hodges yells

"You got to sign..."

"Security! Security!"

"Hey, I told you, you got to sign for that!" The delivery guy yell at him and Hodges puts the package on the nearby counter just as we round the corner.

"What are you doing, Hodges?" Grissom asked

"Guy comes in here with a package with no return address." Hodges tells him

"You're violating my rights! I want a lawyer!" The delivery guy says

"Shut up." Cathrine says to the guy

"Way the guy was pawing that envelope, I figure I better get it away from him before he wipes off all the trace." Hodges says

"What trace?" Grissom asked

"It's about Nick." Hodges says stepping back and showing Grissom the envelope.

"Let me do this." He says to Cathrine holding the envelope and she nods, Grissom leaves with the package. After he's done rnning the tests on the packaging he brings it to the AV lab, we all watch as Grissom slips the cassette tape into a player and presses "PLAY" Outside Chance by The Turtles plays

"Son of a bitch. He's screwing with us." I said and Grissom picks up the USB flash drive and moves to the computer. The music continues to play in the background, a message appears on the monitor:

 _ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN 12 HOURS._

 _OR THE CSI DIES. DROP-OFF INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW._

 _AND NOW FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE_

 _" YOU CAN ONLY WATCH "_

Grissom clicks on the button, then suddenly n the monitor we see Nick is inside a box, me eyes well up with tears as we watch Nick in the box. We watch him kick and continue to scream. The timer on the monitor beeps. Me, Sara, Warrick, Catherine and Greg stand in front of the monitor watching. Grissom sits at the table behind us.

"I don't think he knows we can see him." Cathrine says

"How can we be sure it's a live feed?" I asked

"We've got to assume that it is." Warrick said

"The space in that box looks like 2x2x6, which would be 24 cubic feet. That would hold approximately 600 liters of air. If you figure half a liter per breath. Slow breathing..Maybe 12 breaths per minute. Panic breathing would be, what, twice that much." He says and I look at the monitor and see Nick put a hand to his forehead, "Well, if the math is right, he's got about an hour and 15 minutes of air left in that box." Grissom said

"But if they're going to keep him alive for 12 hours, it must mean that he's got an additional air supply." Cathrine says and the feed ends and it returns to the screen: "YOU CAN ONLY WATCH"

"We lost the feed." Archie sais and Warrick clicks on the button, the light turns back on and Nick squints at its sudden brightness

"Looks like a live feed to me. I say we keep the light on." Warrick says

Nick's parents arrived and god only knows how nervous I was seeing them, I only met them once and now here they are and we have to tell them what's happening with Nick. I was in Grissom's office with them and he walks in.

"Judge Stokes, Mrs. Stokes, Gil Grissom." I said to them

"Your honor. Mrs. Stokes. I'm, uh, sorry that we're meeting under these circumstances." Grissom says

"Have you been able to make contact with the animals who took my son?" Nick's dad asked him and Grissom sits down.

"No, we haven't yet, but ... they should be contacting us in roughly four hours." I answered him.

"We were able to rustle up $20,000 cash. Our bank's prepared to wire another $100,000. Now, we can sell the cars. We can hock the ranch...we can make the number, but it's gonna take at least another day." His mom said and I looked at Grissom

"Judge Stokes..." Grissom starts to say but Mrs. Stokes pushes the envelope across the table toward Grissom and me.

"Can we give them...the money we have now, try to buy more time?" She asks

"I don't think that will help." Grissom told her

"There's got to be something we can do." Judge Stokes said

"You've already done it by coming here, by showing your support..." I started to say

"We're not here to show support. We're here to get Nick home." Mrs. Stokes said cutting me off.

"We're not sure who has your son...or why." Grissom says

"Well ... what the hell do you know?" His dad asked

"Very little." Grissom said

"Let's just cut to the gist. What proof do you have that my boy's still alive?" Mr. Stokes asked, Grissom and I looked at each other. We bring them to the AV room and look at the monitor, Nick is on the monitor, his right arm thrown across his eyes as he waits. The timer on the monitor beeps as it counts down with 04:02:06 left. Judge Stokes and Mrs. Stokes stare silently at the monitor, Grissom and I are nearby. After a long moment, Mrs. Stokes turns and leaves the room. She stops in the hallway and leans against the wall, her back to us, her head bowed. Judge Stokes continues to watch the monitor.

"Pancho ... What the hell you got yourself into?" He says and leaves the room. He walks past us and out into the hallway and puts his arms around his wife. Later on they are both sitting in the waiting room and I walk in with a couple of coffees and hand them to them both and Nick's mom mumbled a thanks to me. I was about to leave the room when she stops me.

"Katie..I'm sorry about earlier, cutting you off" She said and I sat down in the chair in front of them.

"Don't be, I understand, and trust if me if I could I would help you guys get the last of the money you need, but I promise you I will not stop until we bring Nick home." I told them both and his mother smiled at me, set down her coffee and grabbed my hands.

"I'm so happy my Nicky has found himself a girl like you, he is happier then I've ever seen him before." She told me and I smiled at her.

"He makes me happy too, more then you know." I told her and looked over at his dad who gave me a small smile.

After I left them I hear that Grissom went to meet with the kidnapper by himself with money that Cathrine got from her father, Sam Braun, I tried to convince them to let me go after Grissom but they wouldnt let me, I already have to watch Nick in this situation, I dont want to watch Grissom end up the same way.

Officer cars and other emergency personnel are parked in front of the building that Grissom was in and when I heard that the kidnapper blew himself up with Grissom in there I didnt even wait for Warrick to fully stop the car before I got out and ran over to the ambulance that my uncle was sitting in getting checked out.

"Grissom. How is he" I asked the EMT

"Pupils are even." THe guy tells me and I hear Grissom muttering something

"He blew himself up and left us with nothing." I heard Grissom say and my heart sank.

"Sir, are you experiencing any ringing in your ears?" The EMT asked him but Grissom ignored him and looked at me.

"I'm sorry Katie." He said but I just hugged him, all I cared about at the moment was that my uncle was okay.

I went inside and started processing the blown up man with David and Cathrine walks over.

"What I had to do to get this money and for what." She mutters

"There's no ID on him." David said and I stand up and carefully walk through the bills on the floor. I look around the floor and find something picking it up.

"I got a thumb." I said.

I get back to the lab and opened the container and took out the large piece of thumb and partial palm. I look at the print and clean off as much of the dried blood as I can. I looks at the print under the light and printed the thumb. Then I run the thumb print through the database.

NO MATCH FOUND

I lean forward and put my head in my hands and sigh. I stand at the water fountain with myhand on my forehead, I rub it while I let the water fountain run feeling agitated, silently worried and barely keeping it together. I think back to yesterday before Nick left for work.

 _We were laying in bed talking and laughing when his phone rang._

 _"Don't answer it" I said and he smiles._

 _"I can't ignoore it you know that." He said an answered the phone, "Okay I'll see you at the lab." He said and hung up the phone, "Sorry Baby" He said to me and before he could get up I pulled him back over to me and kissed him deeply and he moved us laying down on top of me, "you are temptress." He said and I gave him one last kiss._

 _"Just something for you to think about while your at work." I told him and he grinned._

 _"Trust me, I think about you all the time at work, even when you're there." He said and I pushed him off me laughing._

 _"Go to work mister, that way you can come home quicker." I said and he walked owards the bathroom to get ready but turned and looked at me._

 _"I love you" He said_

 _"I love you too" I said back_

I was pulled out of my thoughts when Mia hollered to me.

"Katie?" She said and I looked at her, "I got something off your thumb." She says and I turn and run to the DNA lab. Mia sits in front of the computer showing me what she's found.

"So when you struck out on prints, I ran DNA through CODIS, hoping maybe the guy was in the system off an open case or a prior felony. I got no straight-up match, but..."

"...but you got a moderate stringency match for a Kelly Gordon." I said finishing what she was saying

"Yeah, seven alleles in common, and based on the age, I'd say it was his daughter." She said

"Good work, Mia." I said and leaves go to Grissom's office and sit across from him going through the file while he goes through another file.

"Kelly Gordon is currently in state prison serving year three of a five-year sentence for accessory to murder." I tell him looking at a map of the crime scene, "The address of her crime scene is 625 Viking Circle. That's the same place where the messenger picked up the package. It wasn't random." I said

"Neither was the Styrofoam cup." Grissom told me

Later on I'm sitting with Brass in the interigation room with Kelly Gordon.

"So at trial, you testified that you went with your boyfriend to visit a buddy of his. And when you went in the house, your boyfriend blew the guy away." Brass pointed out to her

"He wasn't my boyfriend. I knew the guy two weeks. Why am I here?" She asked

"A Styrofoam cup with your DNA on it was found in that house. You claimed you dropped it running for your life." I told her (

"My word against a cup, and the next five years, I'm being traded for cigarettes by my cellmate." She says and looks at us, we say nothing.

"You're not reopening my case. What do you want?" She asked me

"Your father took it pretty hard."

"He was an aerospace engineer, right? Good with explosives?" Brass asked her

"So, this is about my dad?" She asked

"You know, we had your visitor's log. Your father stopped coming to see you six weeks into your sentence." Brass pointed out

"Seeing your daughter turned into some ... hood rat's lesbian sex slave can be rather emotional." She told us

"Why did he come see you last week? Did you know what he was planning to do?" I asked her

"I don't know. What did he do?" She asked me

"He kidnapped a friend of mine. A CSI. And then he blew himself up. Tried to take some cops with him." Brass told her

"How many did he get?" She asked and I started getting angry

"Hey, we're all still here." Brass started to say but I interrupted.

"Nick is still missing." I said

"Who's Nick?"

"The CSI is still missing. Do you know where he is?" I asked her

"That's pretty funny - you guys not being able to find something." Kelly said

"Yeah, look, if you cooperate, we can get your sentence reduced." Brass told her

"You know what I used to do before this? Back when I was alive? I used to grow things. Outside. I was studying horticulture. Flowers. My cellmate, Trish, gave me one for Valentine's Day." She said and puts her left hand palm open on the table to show a white flower tattoo on her palm, "Want to smell it?" She asked, "I hope your friend dies." She says and I got up and left before I ended up beating her senseless.

I sat in th AV room with Archie and Grissom, who is watching from a laptop behind us and I'm sitting there watching on the main monitor chewing on my thumb nail as I watch Nick talking but we cant hear anything, I hear Grissom say something then continued to watch the monitor, suddenly, Nick looks down at his feet and appears to lose it. He drops the tape recorder, me and Archie watch the monitor.

"He's going into convulsions." I said and look back at Grissom, "He's losing it." Nick appears to be in full-mode panic.

"What's going on?" I asked Grissom but he looks just as puzzled as I am.

"What is - ?" He starts to ask but stops, "Wait a minute." I turn and looks back at Grissom, "Ants." I look back at the monitor, Nick isn't panicking, he's screaming, "My God, he's being eaten alive." Grissom said and I put my hand over my mouth fighting back tears. I move and stand behind Grissom and we both watch Nick over the monitor seeing the ants covering Nick's face. He keeps his eyes shut tight and tears off something to shove into his nose. Although he's in pain, Nick forces himself to stop moving

"That's it, Nicky. Stay still. They won't bite. As much" Grissom says eyes glued to the monitor, "Oh, come on, pal. Yeah. That's it." Grissom says sitting in front of the monitor, "Come on. Little more." I step up behind him and watch what he's doing, "Keep coming. Show me what you're made of. Come on, buddy." An ant dances across the edge of the lens. Finally, it lands dead center on the lens and Grissom hits the print button, "Gotcha!"

"Solenopsis invicta." Grissom tells us, "They're fire ants, very rare in Nevada. They don't like our soil. The only places you find them around Vegas are in plant and tree nurseries." Grissom says and stops walking behind Catherine who is in front of the computer.

"There's eleven nurseries in the greater Las Vegas area." She says

"Okay, I've got the web cam trace down to here." Archie says as he draws a large circle in black ink on the map he has.

"And the data from the black box in Walter Gordon's truck gave us a 23-mile travel radius." Greg says adding another circle, cutting the area down even more. Warrick walks out with the printout of the nurseries and quickly scans the list.

"Okay, I've got two nurseries within the overlap area. Here and here." He adds two 'X' marks to the map within the overlapping area.

"Wait, wait. Wait, wait. Kelly Gordon, the daughter, worked with plants. Hold on. Hold on." I said and ran out of the lab and down the hallway to Grissom's office. I pick up the file folder from his desk and checks the information, I ran full circle back to the break room, "You guys, Nick is here." I said pointing to the left-most blue 'X' on the map. Inside one of the cars, Grissom drives and I'm sitting in the passanger seat, he gives my hand a light squeeze and I look at him and we reach the nursery where the owner is waiting for us, Grissom exits his car and walks up to the owner with me following after him.

"You said on the phone you had a fire ant mound. Where is it?" Grissom asked the owner.

"People usually prefer to stay away from it." The owner of the nursery shows them the fire ant mount. Grissom turns and looks at the rest of his team.

"All right, look. Fan out. Look for loose soil. Anything that might've been dug up recently." He says and we disburse.

I hear Cathrine shout, "He-e-ey! I'm picking up the web cam transmitter. Me, Sara, Warrick and other officers turn and rush toward Catherine and she continues down the main road, she turns the corner and continues walking., "This is it! I found it! It's here." She shouts the others run to, "I found it! This is it! Nick! Nick, we're here. Hang on!" She yells through the pipe, Warrick and other officers dig quickly in the area surrounding the vent pipe. Grissom, me and the others stand off to the side, watching and I feel Grissom grab my hand as I looked at Warrick continue to dig. Warrick glances back at me from looking at his watch which is beeping, he goes back to digging.

"I hit something." Warrick shouts

"We got you, Nicky!" Cathrine says and Warrick puts the shovel aside and starts clearing off the dirt with his hands, "Hey! Hey! We got you, man! Hey, Nicky! Nicky! Yeah. Hey, hold on there. Hey, put that down. Put that down." I hear him say as he clears the dirt to the box Nick is in, "Put that down. We got you. We're gonna get you out of here. Hang in there. Oh, my God. We need that fire extinguisher! Give me that fire extinguisher." Warrick shouts

"Short bursts, Greg. Don't suffocate him!" Grissom shouts and Greg shoots a couple of bursts from the fire extinguisher into the coffin.

"Hang on, buddy. Hang on. Almost had him." Warrick says and motions for us to help clear off more of the coffin cover I rush over and help Warrick out looking at Nick.

Sara, standing on the side, turns and shouts over her shoulder, "Get the paramedics!"

"Hang on. Hang on. We'll kill those ants, okay? You listen to me." Warrick said and they they lift up the cover as Greg shoots more CO2 into the coffin to get the ants off Nick.

"One, two, three." Warrick says as we get ready to lift the cover up but before we move, Catherine stops us.

"Everyone out of the hole. That box is ready to explode!" She shouts

"Are you kidding?" I asked her

"Get out of there now!" Everyone but me and Warrick clear the hole, Warrick doesn't move.

"I'm not leaving without Nick." Warrick says

"There are charges under the box!" She shouts and I look at Warrick

"I'm not leaving here without him." Warrick says again

"Warrick, Katie, Catherine's right. Get out of the hole now. I know what we're gonna do. Just trust me." Grissom says and Warrick looks back at Grissom. He slowly releases his hold on the coffin cover he turns back and looks at Nick, and grabs my hand taking me out of the hole and inside the box I hear Nick scream and thump weakly on the cover

"We need 200 pounds of dirt over here right now, and we're gonna use that backhoe to get it." He shouts and goes over to the box, "Nick! Can you hear me? It's gonna take us a minute to get you out of there, okay? Nick!" Grissom shouts, "Pancho!" I hear him yell and I look at him. "Listen to me." Grissom puts his right hand flat on the box cover, "Put your hand on my hand. Good. Now listen. There may be explosives under the box. They're probably set on pressure switches. We need to equalize your body weight before we can pull you out, okay?" He tells Nick, "Pancho, nod your head if you understand me. Okay, we're gonna use the dirt from the backhoe to equalize his weight. I need a rope and a caribiner." Sara takes off running to get the items, "All right, Pancho, we're gonna open the lid and get you out, but I need you to stay lying down. Okay? Or else you'll blow us all up." He tells Nick and I move closer to the hole but Warrick stops me giving me a nod and I reluctently nod back, "You understand that? Do you promise? Pancho, say, "I promise."

"I promise." I hear Nick's muffled voice say, Catherine directs the backhoe over toward Nick.

"Don't move." Grissom says and him and Warrick open the coffin lid.

"I got you. I got you." I hear Warrick whisoer to Nick grabbing his hand, "Lay still. Lay still. It's okay. It's okay."

"All right, bring that over." Grissom says to the guy driving the backhoe filled with dirt and Grissom latches the hook and rope around Nick's belt buckle. He stands outside the hole and holds the end of the rope and we all grab onto it, "Okay, Pancho, I want you to close your eyes and hold your breath." Grissom look at the driver, "Now!" The dirt is dropped into the hole, filling it. Grissom and the rest of are standing behind him holding onto the rope, "Ready? Go!" He shouts and we tug hard and jerk Nick right out from the loose dirt and out of the coffin, Nick comes flying out of the dirt, landing on the ground as the coffin explodes shooting dirt straight up into the air, the dirt and dust billows around the area. I step past Grissom toward Nick who remains twitching on the ground, his eyes shut but he's alive, I feel Grissom grab my hand stopping me and I look at him but I understood.

Later Nick is wrapped securely on the gurney, lifted up and placed in the back of the ambulance. Warrick and I climb into the back of the ambulance while Ecklie, Grissom, Sara, Brass, Cathrine and Greg remain outside. Nick reaches out and Warrick grabs Nick's hand, I place my hand on Nick's leg as the EMTs shut the ambulance doors and he lets go of Warrick's hand and grabs mine and I tried so hard to fight back the tear, I had Nick back.

The others arrived at the hospital shortly after Nick's parents got there, I left the room and let them have a moment alone, I was standing outsie the room watching them and Grissom comes up next to me.

"How's he doing?" He asked me.

"He's trying to get over the shock, the bites are gonna hurt for a while but the doctor gave him some cream for them." I told him and he wrapped his arm aroun my shoulder and I leaned my head on his.

"It's going to be okay. He's here, we got him back." Grissom tells me and we both stared into the room.

Later on Nick's parents left to go back to our house and change, I was sitting by Nick's bed with my head laying on my arm on the bed facing him and my other hand was holding his bandaged one. I must have ended up falling asleep because the next thing I knew I felt Nick nudge me and I looked up at him.

"Hey are you okay? Is something wrong?" I asked him an he smiled.

"No, nothing's wrong I'm okay" He said and I smiled back at him, "Are you okay?" He asked me.

I laughed softly, "I'm okay, I'm just glad you're here." I said and he tried to move to sit up but I stopped him, "Hey what are you doing? You shouldnt be moving." I tol him but he grabbed my han that was on my shoulder.

"I'm okay to move Katie, plus I have to sit up, I need to kiss my girl." He says sitting up and I smiled leaning in and gave him a light kiss on the lips, I was about to pull back but he pulled my head closer and kissed me again this time more deeper.

He finally pulled back and I looked at him, "You're stubborn you know that?" I asked him.

He just nodded his head, "Yes I am, but I'm also madly in love with you, and to think I was never going to see you again I just-"

"Shh don't," I cut him off, "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere an neither are you." I said and leaned down kissing him again.

"Katie, could you go over to my pants and bring them here?" He asked

"You're not leaving until you feel better." I said to him

He laughed, "I know that, Warrick made it pretty clear I was to stay here."

I walked over to the chair his pants were on and grabbed them bringing them over and he grabbed them reaching into his pocket. Once he put th pant aside he grabbed my hand and I sat down on the side of the bed.

"Katie, I've been thinking about this for awhile now, even before what happened the past couple of days, I love you, more then I can even begin to tell you, I want you to be apart of my life forever." He said and opened his hand revealing a small box, I looked at him shocked, "Katie Grissom, will you marry me?" He asked and opened the box, inside was a beautiful old fashioned looking ring.

"Y-yes! Yes Nick, I would love to marry you." I said and he put the ring on my finger and I leaned down and kissed him passionately.

"This ring is beautiful Nick." I said looking at it then at him.

"Grissom gave it to me when I asked him for permission to marry you, it's your grandmother's ring." he said and I looked back at the ring, I knew I had seen it before, I never thought my grandmother would ever give up this ring. I looked back at Nick and he smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

**It started out as Friendship**

Just a few months after me and Nick got engaged we got married, we had just a small simple wedding with just close friends and family. Nick's parents and Grissom surprised us with two tickets and a hotel room in Denver, CO for our honeymoon, after a week on our honeymoon we returned and got called into a case with a murdered family and a missing daughter. We drove seperately to the scene and I stopped at a coffee shop to get coffee for me and Nick and arrived at the scene, I walked in to te kitchen of the victims house and saw Nick over by the coffee maker

"Are we having a Taster's Choice moment?" I asked and turns and looks at me, "Grissom called me from the airport. He's teaching a human remains recovery class at the body farm. I figure you needed coffee, but...looks like you already took care of it." I said

"Oh, no. No, I didn't do it. Coffeemaker's programmed to go on Monday through Friday." He told me standing up

"So, somebody cleaned up Friday's coffee and reset it to go off today?" I asked and he grabbed the coffee from me I looked around the kitchen and see the place is a mess. All the cupboards are open, the drawers are open and some things are on the floor.

"You'd have to be alive to do that." Nick said to me

"Which means whatever happened here happened over the weekend."

"Blood pools are dry, so, crime scene's at least 12 hours old." Nick pointed out.

Nick leads me into the main hall, "There were at least three major blood events...Here... here...and up the stairs. Without the bodies, we'll have to confirm the source of the blood through DNA comparison." Nick said

"I'll collect toothbrushes, hairbrushes...you know, it's possible it wasn't the family that died here." I said

"The sheriff confirmed the McBrides' cars are parked out front, and their cell phones, car keys, wallets are all right there." He says, I turn and look at the things on the hallway table.

"Can't get far without those."

"Mm." Nick said and I turn and look around.

"It would also seem to eliminate robbery as a motive." I pointed out

"Yeah."

Me and Nick start processing the shoe print from the entry way and I lift a shoe print then stand up.

"Based on their shoes, dad wore a nine-and-a-half, mom wore a nine. Jeremy wore an eight-and-a-half, and Cassie wore a one." I said looking at the shoes

"There is that men's nine-and-a-half between blood pool number one and blood pool number two." Nick said

"And the barefoot print on the stairs looks smaller." I said

"Yeah, they're consistent with the mom, size nine. No matches to Jeremy or Cassie, though."

"Let's just assume they were shot. Maybe they were shot first. There's no blood to step in if you're first." _Quick flash: Cassie opens the door and someone shoots her. End of flash._ "Or mom could have grabbed Cassie up, try to take her away from it all _._ " _Quick flash of Nina McBride grabbing Cassie and running up the stairs.)_ "Bullet penetrated both bodies." _Someone fires one bullet and hits them both. Nina falls to her knees. End of flash._

"Could explain why there are only three blood pools." Nick said

"There are three other sets of shoeprints. One size 12, two size 11." I said and Nick looks down at the blue-stickered shoe prints on the floor. "Two of the sets appear to be going back and forth from the kitchen area to the front door. One set, and only one set, headed upstairs for the bedrooms."

"I'll go up there and see what I can find." He said and headed upstairs.

I went to the kitchen and started dusting for prints, I find prints on the counters and continues dusting. I walk over to the bulletin board and see the calendar with the stars on it, Greg walks into the kitchen.

"I think I figured out when all this happened. Cassie never got to her Saturday morning chores." I said and scrunched my nose and looked away, as Greg is looking through the mail I clear my throat and rub my nose.

"Maybe Brass can check it out." Greg said

"I think this print dust is getting to me. Would you mind finishing the fridge?" I asked and pass Greg on the way out.

"Do I get a gold star?"

"Ha-ha-ha." I said sarcastically

I walk around the corner and see some blood on the mat in front of the door leading to the cellar and I note that the lock is missing from the door. I open it and look inside turning on my flashlight and look down the stairs leading to the cellar. I head downstairs and turn the corner and see something.

"Greg? I found something." I said and Greg joins me.

"Is it the bodies?" He asked

"No." I said and in the cellar, the McBrides have a pot farm complete with artificial light.

"Sweet Mary Jane. The emerald city." Greg says and I walk down the steps and join him.

"Explains the $2,000 electric bill. And all the footprints throughout the house." I said

"It's a ganja graveyard."

"No...it's motive." I pointed out

I snap photos of the various items in the basement and Warrick comes down the stairs.

"Whew...! Looks like someone shot out the lock upstairs. I found what looked like fragments of two bullets; they may be too m-and-d for a comparison, but I could probably get type and caliber." He said and Nick and Greg are also in the basement processing, "Man. If those suspects got everything on those lines, they made out like fat cats."

"Yeah, but they were only interested in the dried stuff." Greg said

"If this was a territory war, or something like that, wouldn't the dealer want to take the new growth, to try to put these guys out of business?" Nick asked

"Maybe one of the customers got greedy." I said

"Well, we're talking about getting rich, not getting high, you know? And these dry ones go a lot faster than those. The price of an ounce these days is anywhere from $200 to $400." Warrick mentioned

"Don't you guys think it's weird that the McBrides did all this with two kids in the house?" Greg asked

"Yeah, if they didn't care before, I bet they do now." Nick said

Nick is standing at the car, the back hood open as he writes on an evidence box and I exit the house and walk over to him.

"Well, we took some representative samples of the green plant material." I told him

"Okay, Ecklie's sending out a tech. I'll include it with the other evidence." He says and I hand him the sample bags.

"Pioche PD's going to hold on to the rest until we can secure it for bulk transport. How's it going with the phone records?" I asked

"No outgoing calls from the house after 6:00 P.M. Friday night. I scrolled through Jude McBride's recent cell phone calls. No activity all weekend until Sunday night. Several incoming calls, all from the same number. According to Pioche PD dispatch, it's the same number as the anonymous 911 call. So I had the phone company cross-check it. The guy's local, Dr. Malcolm Parker." Nick told me

"I'll go check it out." I said and Nick nods, before I leave to head over there Nick grabbed my arm and I turned back to face him.

"I love you." He said.

"I love you too." I said and left.

I arrive at the clinic with the sheriff and saw the doctor walking out with a patient.

"Be careful with those stitches, okay? I just put them in a couple days ago. Your mom will kill me if it scars."

"Okay." The patient leaves, Sheriff Brackett and I both stand up from our hallway seat.

"Sorry about that, guys. You had some questions?" Dr. Parker asked

"You placed an anonymous 911 call Sunday night. Said you were outside the McBrides' house and you could see blood in the entryway." Sheriff Brackett said

"Right before that, you called Jude McBride's cell phone three times. Late night house call...?" I asked him

"Dennis, do I have to answer that?" He asked the Sheriff

"It looks worse if you don't." He answered

"Well, Jude and I have a standing Sunday night appointment." Parker said

"For what?" I asked, he looks anywhere but at me, "You are aware that it's illegal." I told him

"Okay, look, I have no idea what went on out there, before I got there." He said, "I didn't leave my name, because...because I didn't want to explain what I was doing there."

"You and Jude are making me look like an idiot. He's selling drugs, and you're buying them. Tell me something, Malcolm. Are you high when you treat my daughter?" The sheriff asked him

"Dennis, of course not. And Jude was discreet. He rarely sold to anybody in town. He sent most of it out of state." He answered

"Dr. Parker, what size shoes do you wear?" I asked him

"What size shoe do I wear? A ten."

"And where were you Friday night?" I asked him

"I was here, doing rounds." He said

Nick hangs up and heads over to the park table where me, Warrick, Sara and Greg are sitting, eating and discussing the case.

"How did Mark know where the pot was, if McBride was as discreet as Dr. Parker claims?" I asked and Nick returns to the table sitting next to me

"DNA confirmed to everyone but Cassie." He said

"Interesting." I said taking a bite out of my food

"Mm-hmm."

"Mark knew the pot was there because of Jeremy. Come on, I'm sure Jeremy wasn't voted the most popular boy in school. He's done everyone's term paper. He's a nerd." Warrick said

"Yeah, so how does that end up a quadruple murder?" Greg asked

"One of them was stupid enough to bring a gun." I said to him

"I was talking to Tina the other night. She said something to make me think." Warrick said

"Yoko Ono." Greg coughe and Nick and I laughed

"Tina's dad is a doctor of anthropology, so, one day, when she was a little girl, she asked her dad where on her body her anthropology was. You know, he's a doctor. Mark's dad's a lawyer. Maybe Mark was thinking habeas corpus - "body of the crime"?" He said

"Body of the crime" is content of the case, not an actual body." I said to him

"Yeah, but a kid could easily misinterpret. Maybe he's thinking, "no body, no crime, no crime, no punishment." Warrick said

"Does Yoko Ono want a job?" I asked and we chuckle. Sheriff Brackett puts a basket of muffins on the picnic table.

"Morning." He said, "My wife made muffins."

"Thank you." I said to him

"You're welcome. We got a lead on the ATM. The account belongs to Jim Locke. He's got a son named Peter, the same age as Mark. We pulled some surveillance footage. It's a little grainy, can't see much." He says and gives the video tape to Warrick.

"I'll give it over to Archie and see if he can clean it up. Thanks." Warrick said

"All right. I'll be in the car waiting when you guys are ready." Brackett said

"All right, thank you." Nick said the sheriff walks away

"You feeling a little homesick there?" Greg asked Warrick

'You want to draw straws?"

"No." Greg said

"Call me if you need me." Warrick said to Nick

"All right." Warrick stands and leaves.

"All right, let's head over to Locke's house, and see what we can find." I tell Greg and we gather our things, "You coming?" I asked Nick

"No...no, you go ahead, I'll catch up." He told me

"You think she's alive."

"You don't?" He asked me

"None of her blood was found at the house. I think she was drugged, and...she was lucky if all they did after that was kill her." I said, I hated to admit it but we havent found any evidence proving otherwise

"I don't think she was drugged. She's a smart little girl. She hid that cough medicine in her shoe; that's like hiding green beans in your napkin, you know?" Nick said

"I hope you're right. But everything in our experience tells us they're dead, all four of them." I told him

"Doesn't mean we just give up."

I sat back down nxt to him and grabbed his hand "No one's giving up. It's just that...you're acting like you're going to rescue a person, not recover a body. And on this job...that's just not usually the case." I said and he looked at me

"I was rescued."

"It was not your day to die. When it's your day, it's your day, you know?" I told him looking him in the eyes

"I don't think it was Cassie's day." He told me, I gave him a small kiss on the cheek and headed to my SUV to head over to the Locke residence

Greg and I are looking at the boat parked in the driveway.

"That looks like the plant material I found in the McBrides' driveway." Greg said

"And this looks like the same wheelbase as the tread you found." I pointed out to him

"Does Peter have access to it?" I asked her regarding her checking account

"Sure. He has a limit, but he's never gone over it." the mom tells me

"Mrs. Locke, when was the last time you took the boat out?" Brackett asked her

"Friday night. Peter and some of his friends took it out for one last hurrah before it gets too cold."

"Do you know which friends?"

"I was already in bed. Sorry." She said

"Do you mind if the CSIs take a look at it?" Brackett asked her

"Sure. Have the boys been drinking beer on the boat again?"

Greg is looking at the frayed rope, "My dad used to take me sailing when I was a kid. Do you know what the inboard end of an anchor rope is called?" He asked and I shook my head, "The bitter end." He said (Greg and I are both on the boat, looking around on deck and I open a compartment and take out a roll of trash bags.

"This explains why we're not finding any blood." I said and climb out of the boat and put the roll of trash bags down on a paper bag and my phone rings and I see it's Nick, "Hey!"

 _"Hey!"_ _Did you find any gum on that boat? Any gum at all-wrapped, unwrapped-anywhere?_

"Yeah ... how did you know that?" I asked and turn around and walk to the end of the evidence line where the gum is in a plastic bag.

 _"I think Cassie was on that boat-alive. I think she was leaving us a trail...of gum, "gum drops."_ I pick up the plastic bag. _"In the driveway, in the car, on the boat. It's like Hansel and Gretel. Half the pictures I've seen her in, she's chewing gum."_

"Nick, that's a bit of a stretch. A lot of people chew gum." I tell him

 _"You tell Sheriff Brackett I'll meet you at the station."_ He said then hung up the phone.

Me and Nick are watching Brackett interview Peter Locke, "Peter, we know you were in Mark's car. We found your ATM receipt. We also know you guys took the boat out Friday night. We know that there were three people involved. Who was the third?" He asked and Peter doesn't say anything, "Pete, we found your print on a cough syrup bottle, underneath Cassie McBride's bed. Your buddy Mark's not talking. He's gonna pay for that. You be smarter. You do the right thing."

As we observe Nick's PDA beeps and he check it, I see the expression on his face change and I grab it out of his hands and look, it's a picture of Cassie in the backseat of a car with Peter sucking her thumb. Nick exits the observation room and bursts into the interview room, and he walks up to Peter and grabs his wrist.

"How'd you hurt your hand?" I hear Nick ask him as I follow him into the room and he grabs Peter's hair and pulls his head back to look at him, "What's the matter? She fight back? You tried to drug her, but guess what? She was too smart for you. You coached the little girls' swim team, 'cause you liked to watch 'em in their bathing suits, is that it? You're gonna answer me right now!" Nick yells and grabs Peter by his shirt, pulls him to his feet and slams his back up against the wall, "No more screwing around! Where is she?!" Nick asked Peter doesn't say anything, "Where is she?" Peter starts crying, "Where is she?"

Officers are around the pier and I stand on the pier talking with an officer and Nick rushes up to me.

"Okay, my guess is the guys stopped at the ATM to get cash for gas. That's cash only, and Eddie over there says he filled the tank to the top Friday night." He points to the man filling up the boat with gas, I look and nod but my mind is on another matter.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I ask him

"Sure, what's up?"

"I-I think I need to talk about what happened at the station." I tell him

"Oh, yeah."

"I'm slightly concerned about its effect on the case, but more than that, I'm concerned about the case's effect on you, Nick, and I'm absolutely sure that, six months ago, you wouldn't have lost it like that." I said and he looked at me

"I know, I'm sorry. I apologize for that." He sai and I gave him a small smile

"How much gas was left?"

"Three-quarters of a tank. Took an eighth to get out there, an eighth to get back." He said pulling out a map, "And according to the gas mileage, on the Lockes' boat, that would have been about three miles out from this launch point right here." He points and motions for me to follow him, "Come on."

I take a step to follow him and stop checking under my shoe and removed a piece of Bubblicious gum, "Nick?"

"Yeah?" He asked and I showe him Cassie's gum. Nick takes a breath and looks at his map again.

We're on the boat and the patrol guy tells me we are at the 3 mile mark and I nod and the boat's engine is cut. Nick opens the kit next to him and takes out the underwater remote camera and we put it in the water and wait. We gather around the monitor as the underwater remote camera moves under the water. After a while, we find something.

"There's something there." The patrol guy says and on the monitor, we find Jeremy, Nina and Jude dead, their heads sticking out of the plastic trash bags wrapped around them. The remote continues past Jude, but they find nothing, but the weights tied to the body. The diver brings up the bodies and opens them I snap several photos of Jude, Nina and Jeremy.

"Where's the fourth?" I asked him

"We only found three"

Later Warrick calls me and tells me the bullets recovered from the family match a gun that belonged to Chris Daniels so me, Nick and Brackett make our way over there. Chris Daniels is grilling steaks on the barbeque. Brackett and I walk alongside the house.

"Hey, Dennis, what's up? Hey, just in time for steaks." Chris says

"Mr. Daniels, do you, uh ... do you own a .22 revolver?" Brackett asked him

"You know the answer to that. You cited it and fined me two hunting seasons ago."

"Sir I'm Katie Stokes from the Las Vegas Crime Lab. It's evidence in a homicide investigation. I'm going to need it." I tell him and hear a kid calll from the house

"Dad, how long on the steaks?" The back door opens and the teenager stops in the doorway.

"We're going to need to speak to Luke." Brackett tells the father

"What did you do with my gun?" Chris asked his son but Luke doesn't say anything, "If you did anything to jeopardize that football scholarship of yours, you're done." Chris turns to look at Luke who glances down at the cooking fork in his dad's grip and I see Mr. Daniels tightening his hold on the fork as he glares at his son.

I exit the front door onto the porch and Sheriff Bracket escorts Luke out of the house. From his car, Nick watches them head for the officer's car. Chris Daniels remains behind on the porch. Sheriff Brackett helps Luke Daniels into the back of his squad car. Luke has his wrists handcuffed behind him.

"Duck your head." Brackett says and Chris Daniels turns and heads back inside.

I carry the evidence bags to Nick and show him the large hunting knife, "Found this in his pocket when I patted him down. Tested positive for blood." I show Nick the shoes, "As did these."

Luke Daniels sits in the hallway under the watchful eye of an officer. I exit the room and sit in the seat next to him.

"You just wanted to intimidate Jeremy, right? Scare him a little? But Mr. McBride was still home and he didn't scare so easily."

 _Quick flashback to the Mcbride house, Jeremy meets with Mark Horvatin, Luke Daniels and Peter Locke. Jeremy is trying to get the guys to leave._

 _"You guys have to go. My parents are still home."_

 _"Dude, I thought you said there were pounds of pot." Jeremy pushes them toward the door, but they don't go._

 _"You guys got to get out, okay? Please, just get out of here, all right?"_

 _"Just listen to him, man. Do what he said." Peter Locke tells Luke who takes out the gun and points it at Jeremy._

 _"Jeremy! Jeremy, what's going on?" Jude Mcbride asked, "Jeremy, what's going on?" Jude steps out from the kitchen and the gun fires and hits Jeremy in the chest. Jeremy falls to the floor. Jude grabs the gun. Luke fires and Jude falls to the ground._

 _"What the hell did you just do?" Peter asked (End of flash.)_

"Mrs. McBride came downstairs, so you had to shoot her, too."

 _Quick flash to: Luke fires and hits Nina McBride in the back. She falls on the stairs. (End of flash.)_

"Peter went upstairs to deal with Cassie..."

 _Quick flash to Cassie's room, she hides under the bed. The bed covers lift and Peter finds her. (End of flash.)_

"...while you and Mark bagged the pot and wrapped the bodies in garbage bags. But...Peter couldn't do it. He couldn't kill Cassie...so he tried to drug her. You guys got in Mark's car, you went to the ATM, you got cash, you picked up Peter's boat, you went back to the McBrides' and you loaded the bodies onto the boat."

 _Quick flash to the boat, the boys wrap the bodies in the trash bags and tie them together._ "You were out of bullets, way out on the lake. One small, loose end to tie up." _Peter gently brushes the hair from Cassie's face. Her eyes are closed and she's leaning against the side of the boat. He looks back at Luke._

 _"Bring her over here."_

 _"No!" Peter said_

 _"She can identify us! There's no way she's staying alive." Peter stands up and punches Luke._

 _"I said she was a strong swimmer. I didn't say we could throw a drugged ten-year-old into the lake." Peter says and Luke opens his knife and pushes Peter aside. He heads over toward Cassie. He kneels down and puts the knife to Cassie's neck. (End of flashback)_

"Did it make you feel like a man? To kill a little girl?" I asked him.

Nick ended up finding Cassie alive and we went to see her at the hospital, I gave Nick's hand a gentle squeeze as he went into her room and I stood out in the hall and watched. I fought back the tears in my eyes as I saw Nick talking to her about her family. After he was done we left and headed home. When we got there I headed to the bedroom and change my clothes while Nick took a shower, he came into the room after he was done and I was standing facing my closet when I felt his arms wrap aroun my waist and he place a kiss on my neck.

"You okay?" He asked me an I turned to face him.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a rough few days." I said and he put his hands on my hips.

"Yeah, it has been, but at least we were able to save her."

"Yeah that makes it better." I said and kissed him lightly.

"Do you think about having kids?" He asked me and I looked at him shocked.

"Well..yeah I do, but with how much we see from this job, it scares me. I know that it would be different and Cathrine makes it work but I worry. Having kids with you would be amazing, but what if I'm not cut out for it?" I said to him and he put his hands on my face.

"You would be an amazing mom, I see how you are with Lindsey when we have her here and Cathrine works, I see how you are with the kids that are involved with our cases, you would be wonerful at it." He told me then kissed me again.

"Well then Mr. Stokes, I would love to have kids with you, when the time is right." I said and he smiled at me then lifted me up and brought me over to the bed.

"Then I guess we should practice huh?" He said and I giggled.


	10. Chapter 10

**It started out as Friendship**

It's been one year already that me and Nick have been married and four months since we discussed having kids, I could tell Nick really wanted one, and honestly so did I, but everytime it was brought up I would change the topic. Then one day I was sitting on the edge of the bathtub and Nick was in the other room getting ready, I was holding in my hands a pregnancy test just staring at it, it was positive. I was brought out of my thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Hey baby you okay in there?" Nick asked me through the door.

"Yeah..I'm fine, I'm just finishing up." I said still looking at the test, "Sweetie how about I just meet you at the scene, it's going to be another couple minutes."

"I dont mind being late, you sure you're okay?" He asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, it's just this hair straightener is not cooperating, Please I dont want to make you late, I'll meet you there." I said, I hated lying to Nick, I never lie to him, but right now I had to get over the shock first.

I finally got myself together and got ready, then headed to the scene and the whole time my mind was on one thing. I arrived at the Cutler residence and walked into the living room, Sara is looking at the blood-spattered wedding photo on the counter.

"Was it the happiest day of your life?" She asked

"Me and Tina? Happened so fast. Time will tell." He said and looked at me

"Me and Nick, yeah, yeah it was." I said and continued looking around the room.

"Why don't you take a look at this phone here and tell me what you think," Warrick says and shows Sara the phone with blood on the #1.

"Blood on the keypad, away from the spatter." She said

"A neighbor called it in. If someone was in the house, they'd have dialed 9-1-1." Warrick told her

"Dispatch never got a call. Maybe the husband started to dial...changed his mind and took off." I said

"Maybe. I just wish it was a print and not a smudge." Warrick told us

"Okay. Bedroom." I said and backed away and heading toward the bedroom

"All right." said and snaps a photo of the phone keypad.

Me and Sara enter the bedroom and look around, she looks at the windows, and I snap photos of the bedsheets and peeled away the covers and snapped more photos. Sara steps into the closet and looks around. She kneels down on the floor and notices the grass clippings on the floor. She picks up the nearest pair of shoes and looks at them. They're both clean and clear of any signs of grass or dirt. I see her reach for something under the bed and Warrick walks in

"Hey. I found these in his jacket." He says and shows us some brochures for THE GIRLS, "Looks like the husband was planning a little vacation. A little recreation on the side."

"I found this under the bed." She said and held up the bagged sock, "And grass-not the kind you smoke-on the floor and in the closet, but all the shoes in the closet were clean."

"So someone was walking around here with grass on their shoes?" He asked and she nodded, "Maybe it was the missing husband, or a desperate gardener."

"Who was mowing more than the lawn?" I asked

We get back to the lab and while Sara is interviewing the gardener me and Warrick are fuming a poster for hookers and Nick walked in.

"So, I hear your marriage is on the rocks, and you're shopping for hookers?" He said standing next to me

Warrick laughs, "No, but I think I found one that Mr. Cutler likes." He points to a girl on there named Sally where there was a thumb print on the front and four fingerprints on the back.

"Sally. Sweet apple pie. Hmm. Do you really think it's a good idea to sleep with a girl who advertises in a flyer?" Nick said

"Well, I don't really think there's any sleeping involved." I said

"Hmm." Nick said smirking at me

"Don't be shy, though. Give her a call." Warrick told Nick and I looked at him.

Nick looks at Warrick, then me, then back at Warrick, "Really?"

Warrick smiles and Nick looked back at me and I just shugged shaking my head and he sighed, "All right, for your enjoyment." Nick picks up the speaker phone and dials the number, A ring or two later, someone answers.

 _"This is Sally. Who's this?"_

"Hi. This is, uh...Dirk...Diggler. I'm looking for a date." Nick said and I held back a laugh looking at Warrick.

 _"What kind of date?"_

"I'm taking a trip around the world. Want to go?" He asked and looked at me with a smile.

 _"Yeah, I'll come with you. You sure you can afford the airfare, darlin'?"_

"Is two g's enough?"

 _"Where you at?"_

"3057 Westfall. It's right off of Charleston." He says and Warrick points indicating to our building and Nick motions him to be quiet, "It's a single level building, all the way in the back."

 _"What do you look like?"_

"Um ... I have a little Tom Cruise thing going." He said and I smirked at him

 _"All right, half an hour, and I'll be there."_

"All right." Nick hangs up and Warrick groans.

"Yeah, right." Warrick said

"You trying to mess up my marriage now?" Nick asked him and Warrick smiled.

"Ah dont worry about, I think Warrick is the one that wants some sweet apple pie but was to nervous to get it himself." I said smiling at Warrick who looked at me offended and Nick laughs and leaves the lab.

After Nick got done interviewing Sally he found me in the locker room, I was getting ready to go to the hospital to collect evidence from Willie Cutler.

"Hey how did it go with the hooker? Was she worth the two g's?" I asked him and I saw him smirk and he walked over to me and pulled me to him.

"Not as amazing as the sexy girl I have right here." He said and kissed me and I melted right into him and would have staye like that if I hadnt remembered I needed to leave.

"You are very distracting do you know that?" I asked him

"I do"

"Listen I..um have something I need to talk to you about but it'll have to wait until later" I said an he looked at me confused.

"Am I in trouble?" He asked and I gave him one more kiss.

"No, no you're not." I said and walked away.

The nurse helps Willie remove his shirt and he groans, I wait on the side with a baggie with Vartann. The nurse removes his shirt.

"Thanks. I'll take that. I said and put the shirt in the bag when Dr. Franks enters the room.

"All right, bullet wound. Let's see what the paramedics left me." He said and rips the gauze bandage off the wound, Willie groans, Dr. Franks looks at the wound, "Irregular laceration, subcutaneous tissue only. A few millimeters deeper, it would have nicked the intercostal artery."

"That sounds bad." Willie says

"Yeah. Would've been a real mess. You're a lucky man. Flush out the wound, dress it wit gauze, start an IV, hang cefazolin and get some blood work done. Oh, and get him a tetanus shot." The doctor tells him and leaves the room, I step forward with the camera.

"Ah, the warm fuzzy feeling of modern medicine." I told him

"Can I get something to wear?" He asked me

"Uh, yes, in a few minutes. I need to document your wound. Do you think you could lift your arms for me like this?" I asked him and he lifts his arms, "Thank you. That's perfect." I tell him and snapped a photo of the wound.

"Why don't you tell us what happened." Vartann told him

"Um. Not much to tell, really. Uh...Cowboy Dan had the office working round the clock for the last week. We were putting together a campaign for a new tour. I just got back from breakfast." He told us, "I heard a shot, shouting, I guess the guy didn't even know I was there. I was so scared, I couldn't move. So I just played dead." He says and I hand him a blanket and he covers himself, "Ow. I don't even know how long I was there. And then you guys came in and found me." He said

"Do you think that you could indicate on this diagram where you were standing when you were shot?" I asked showing him an office layout, he points to the office area between the desk and the door.

"Um...I guess I was standing somewhere around here." He said and I mark it with an 'X', "Thank you."

"Look, I need to call my wife. I should have been home by now, and she's probably worried." He said and I looked at Vartann.

"Um...Mr. Cutler, when was the last time you were home?" He asked Willie

"Um...I guess it was, uh...probably yesterday morning. Why?" Willie asked

"Mr. Cutler. I am very sorry, but...your wife is dead. She was found shot last night in your home." I tell him and he starts to cry.

"Wh...?" He started to ask but continued crying.

Later I'm working on the various photos spread out on the table in front of me and Robbins walks in.

"Hey, Sara, you're working the office shooting, right?" He asked

"Yeah, and the dead wife." I tell him and he brings the file folder to me.

"Autopsy reports on the two DB's. Grissom wanted them ASAP, and I was in the neighborhood." He says and drops the file folder on the table.

"Thanks. I'll pass them along." I said and picked up the file folder and looked through it as Robbins takes a moment to look at the photos on the table.

"Somebody at the office get knifed?" He asked me

"No."

"Kind of looks like a knife wound." He said

"Victim survived the shooting. He said he was grazed by a stray bullet." I told him

"Really?" He asked and puts his glasses on, "This is an irregular laceration with no defining features. A grazing GSW is usually accompanied by some marginal abrasion. There's none here."

"Any idea what might have caused a wound like this?" I asked

"Yeah, lots of things. Something sharp." He looks at the photos closely, "Hmm. What's this blue discoloration?"

"Kind of looks like ink. Doesn't it?"

"Mm-hmm." He says and I picked up a bagged pen.

"Catherine found this under Willie Cutler's desk. Thought the blood was incidental. I swabbed the edge of Willie Cutler's bloodied shirt, "Sodium rhodizonate is negative. No lead in the tear. No bullet." I said

"So, Willie tried to make it look like he was shot." I hear Grissom say he looks down and notices the blood on the shirt sleeve.

"Did I miss something?" I asked

"Don't know. We'll find out." He says

Later on that day we get word that Brass was shot by Willie Cutler and was on his way to the ER, Grissom went there shortly after, Brass gave him power of attorney. I went home after work and Nick was there already, he was coming out of the bedroom.

"Hey any word on Brass?" He asked me and I shook my head.

"All I know is he's in surgery, Grissom's over there now." I said and sat down on the couch.

Nick came over to me and sat down on the coffee table in front of me and grabbed my hands, "Hey, he's going to be okay."

"I know." I said and smiled at him.

I saw him reach behind him and pull something out and bring it forward, I saw what he was holding and looked at him.

"Is this what I think it is?" He asked me

"I told you there was something I needed to talk to you about." I said and he put down the pregnancy test and knelt in front of me.

"Are you?"

"Well the two pink lines doesnt mean negative." I said and he put his hands on my face.

"Are you happy about it?"

"I am, really, I'm sorry it's hard being happy about this with whats happening with Brass. I am happy though, we're gonna have a baby." I said and he pulled me into a kiss then got up and sat next to me and we leaned back snuggling, Nick put his hand on my stomach.

"A baby...wow." He said and I looked at him.

"Are _you_ happy about it?" I asked mocking what he asked earlier.

"Hell yeah I am, we're gonna have a little you running around."

"Nah I think it'll be more like you, the Stokes gene is strong, I mean look at you and your dad." I said and he grinned.

"Yeah thats true, but I hope its a little girl, because she's going to be just as beautiful as her mom, which means she's either going to break a lot of hearts or I'm going to have to keep locks on her door." He said and I laughed.

"Well if its a boy then I'm going to have to do the same thing, because if he gets your grin then the lady's are going to be in serious trouble." I said.

"Personally as long as it's healthy thats all that matters to me." He said and I kissed him, he was right, we just need a happy, healthy baby. As we sat both our phones rang, me and Nick get called into a case, he was reluctant on letting me go with but I told him it was fine and we headed over there. Once we got to the train tracks we saw David squatting next to a body.

"The last train passed through here an hour ago. The engineer thought he saw a body on the track, but couldn't stop on time. He radioed dispatcher, who called 911." Sofia told me, Nick, and Grissom.

"No ID. Probably decapitated by the train." Nick said

"Well, if scavengers nicked his clothes, they left a nice pair of riding boots." Grissom said squatting next to the body

"They probably didn't have time to finish the job before other trains roared through here." I said

"Well, the engineer isn't saying anything else until his union rep gets here, which ... could be a while. I'll let you know." Sofia told us

"Great." Grissom said and Sofia walked away while Grissom puts his kit down.

"You know, there's not a lot of blood on the ground for a decapitation like this." Nick said and I started to feel sick.

"Well, we don't know how far he was dragged. Where's the head?" Grissom asked

"I'll find it." Nick says and looks at me, he saw the look on my face but I nodded my head at him telling hi I was okay and he turns and walks along the tracks.

"Hey, Nick?" Grissom said

"Yeah?"

"I think I found a toupee. Our vic may be bald." Grissom said holding it up looking at it

"Thanks, that will help me distinguish it from the other severed heads I find out here." Nick said and I smiled, Grissom nods and heads back to look at the body. David is just unbuttoning the man's undershirt and opens it to reveal an hour-glass figure.

"Whoa."

Grissom shines his light on the victim's body, "What a waist."

David inserts a thermometer in the victim's torso. He pulls the thermometer out and marks the torso.

"David, are you getting the liver temp or performing acupuncture?" Grissom asked and Sara arrives at the scene and puts her kit down.

David sticks the thermometer in again, "Well, his liver's not where it's supposed to be." He pulls the thermometer out, "Do you think this is some kind of birth defect?" He asked and I turned around looking away trying not to throw up.

"What do you think?" I heard Grissom ask Sara

"I think I feel fat." She says and I feel someone put their hand on my shoulder, I turn and see Grissom standing there.

"Are you okay?" He asked but before I could answer I saw David insert the thermometer in the torso, "Yes. Got the liver." I turned around again and ran over to Nick's SUV and threw up. After a few moments I leaned against the the vehicle and I saw Grissom walk over.

"Hey, what's going on? Dead bodies never bothered you before." He said and I looked at him.

"I'm pregnant."

He looked at me, "How?"

"I really dont feel comfortable giving you details on that." I said

"What are you doing here then?" He asked.

"I thought I woul be okay, but after seeing David trying to.." I stopped because I started getting nauseous again.

"Okay, why dont you head to the hospital and check on Brass." He told me.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, can't have you here if you're going to throw up every 5 minutes." He said and I nodded.

"I rode in with Nick though."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys, "Here, I'll let Nick know and ride back with him." He said and I grabbed his keys and headed to his vehicle.

"Katie." I stopped and turned to look at Grissom.

"Congratulations." He said and I smiled at him then left.

Later on he met me at the hospital and was talking to the surgeon.

"We managed to stop the bleeding, but his condition is critical."

"What are the options?" Grissom asked

"We could try to remove the bullet." The surgeon answered

"What are the risks?"

"If we go in, the vertebral artery could be impacted. He could bleed out or stroke out. Permanent incapacitation." He said

"And without surgery?" Grissom asked him, I could tell he was unsure about what to do.

"The bullet could migrate into the artery and, again, cause a stroke or kill him. Or it could stay there for years and do nothing. He might never wake up."

"What are the odds?"

"Mr. Grissom, this isn't a casino. I don't give odds. It's your call." the surgeon tol him and Grissom looked at me then back at him

"Do it."

Grissom is standing outside Brass's room holding a yellow piece of paper and is on the phone contacting Ellie, Jim's daughter, I see him hang up the phone and he walked over to me sitting down in the seat next to mine.

"No answer?" I asked and he shook his head.

"No." He said and turned to look at me, "Are you doing better now?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, now that I'm not staring at a dead body I think I'll be able to keep the bag of chips I ate down." I said with a smile and he grabbed my hand.

"I'm happy for you Katie, you and Nick both." He said and I placed my other hand on his.

"Thank you, I just feel useless, I threw up at a crime scene, I could barely eat my chips just a little bit ago, and I barely kept my eyes open while sitting here." I said

"Pregnancies often come with nausea, fatigue and an unpredictable appatite." he said and I looked at him, "Sorry, you're not useless, if you want we can just keep you in the lab helping out."

"God that does make me pathetic." I said and he laughed.

"It'll be okay" He said and I leaned my head on his shoulder.

"Nick got worried when I told him you left, he almost came here but I had him go back to the lab and said I'd come check on you." He told me and I laughed.

"Sounds like Nick." I said.

Later that day Grissom left and I stayed at the hospital, Nick called me after to make sure I was doing okay and after telling him over an over that I was he had to let me go and get back to work.

Greg came by later on to visit both me and Brass, we sat there talking and I was telling him how bored I was getting sitting here by myself, other then Mckeen who basically just stood there keeping an eye on Jim too. Just then I see Grissom come around the corner

"Where's McKeen?" He asked Greg

"I sent him home." Greg said jokingly, "Just kidding. He, uh, went to get something to eat. Brass just went into surgery." he said and looked at the two other officers in the hallway, "You two have known each other for a long time."

"We've worked together ever since he came from New Jersey." Grissom told him

"Just between you and me, does he always wear a suit? Like when you guys go to dinner, the movies or whatever it is you do when you hang out. 'Cause I got to tell you, thought of him in a sweater kind of freaks me out." Greg said and I nudged him

"We don't "hang out," Greg." Grissom said and I fought back a smile

"No kidding." He said and shrugs. "I just assumed..." He started to say but we heard arguing down the hall that interupted us.

"What do you mean consent was given? Nobody has asked my consent to do anything, and I'm his daughter." I hear someone say and Grissom and I made our way towards the noise

"I understand you're upset, miss, but there's no need to take that tone." I hear the nurse say and we turn the corner and see Ellie Brass at the nurse's station. Grissom walks up to her and I stayed back a little bit

"Look, I'm just here to see my father, okay? He's a cop." Ellie said

"He's in surgery. The only thing you can do right now is take a seat and wait until he gets out." The nurse said to her

"Excuse me, Ellie?" Grissom asked

"What?"

"I'm Gil Grissom. Thanks for coming." He said

"So I guess you're the one who's in charge. How long is his surgery going to take?" She asked

"Probably a few hours." He told her

"Look, I just got off a bus, I would really like to take a shower and change and maybe get a little rest. Do you have the keys to his house?" She asked and I just looked at her.

"No."

"Well, you're a cop, right? How 'bout you just let me in?" She asked, I honestly couldnt believe what I was hearing

"You know, there's a motel just down the street. I'll get you a room." Grissom told her

"Do you want to check my arms?" She says and pulls up her sleeves, "Go ahead. All right? It looks like Daddy already told you all about me. I don't even know why I bothered to come." She said and grabs her bag off the counter, turns and storms away. Grissom left and so did Greg, but Warrick showed up later with a bag, Nick had sent some stuff with him, I took the bag from Warrick and headed to the bathroom down the hall so I could change. I opened it up and saw he had packed an outfit, the book I had been reading, my crossword book, a few of my magazines, a small pillow and my laptop, I also saw another small little bag and opened it up, I saw a bag of my favorite sour candy, a couple waters, some protein bars and jerky, there was also a note inside and I opened it up

 _Hey beautiful,_  
 _I figured you would need these so I packed everything you like to snack on._  
 _I'm sorry I didnt bring them myself, I'm really busy with this case, our vic wears a corset, can you believe that?_  
 _Anyways I love you, and I love the little Stokes inside you, if you need anything else let me know._  
 _Love, your husband and very happy daddy_

I smiled and put my hand on my stomach, I put the note back in and got changed then heaed back to the waiting room and saw Warrick hang up his phone.

"Brass is out of surgery, they got the bullet out, now we just need to wait for him to wake up." He told me and I looked in Brass's room and saw him laying there, Warrick came up and wrapped and arm around my shoulder, I always loved my friendship with Warrick, he was like the big brother I never had, "Nice to know my boy is taking care of you." He said and I looked at him.

"He is." I said

"Good, because if he wasnt I'd have to kick his ass." he said and I laughed.

"I'm sure you would." I said and looked back into the room.

I told Warrick I needed some fresh air and headed outside, when I got out there I saw Ellie outside smoking, I sighed and walked over to her.

"Ellie?" I asked and she turns around and sees me, "Hey. You know your father's out of surgery."

"Yeah. How's he doing?" She asked me

"It's a little too early to tell, but I know when he wakes up, he'll be happy to see you." I told her

"You think so?"

"I know so." I said, "You look good." I said to her trying to be nice

"Yeah, you mean I don't look like a crack whore anymore?"

"That's not what I meant, but no." I said

"Does he ever talk about me?" She asked and I remained silent, "That's a no."

"Look, what do you want me to say, hmm? It's not really about you right now, okay? But the fact that you're here is saying a lot." I told her and she finishes up her cigarette, tosses it on the ground and smashes it out.

"Yeah, well, thanks for clearing that up for me." She says and walks away.

Later on I sat myself in a long chair and ended up falling asleep, suddenly I felt someone lightly shake rub my shoulder and I opened my eyes and saw Nick standing there.

"Hey." I said sitting up and took my coat off that was covering me, Nick leaned down and planted a kiss on my forehead.

"Hey beautiful." He sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulder, "You really should go home." he said

"I cant, I want to make sure there is someone here in case anything happens." I told him.

"That's one of the many reasons I love you, you have such big heart, but baby you've been here for 3 hours, you need to go home, eat sleep, take a shower." He said and I glared at him.

"You trying to tell me I smell?" I said with a half smile.

"No but it might do you some good." He said and I started to say something but Nick's phone rang. He stood up and answered it and when he did I got up and walked over and stood next to Ellie who was looking at Brass through the window, and Nick was standing behind us.

"Yeah, she's here. Been drinking a ton of coffee and going outside for smokes; on her cell. Not real sociable, you know? You want me to keep an eye on her?" I heard Nick say, "Nah. I'm off the clock. I'll stick around for a while, let you know if there's any change. No she's still here too, I'm trying to get her to go home." I turned my head and looked at him and he looked back at me and grinned so I stuck my tongue out at him, "Okay I'll try. Bye." He hung up the phone and walked over and stood next to me.

"You think you're funny dont you?" I asked him and he pulled me to his side.

"I do, but I also care about you and the baby." He said and I noticed Ellie walked away, probably having another smoke.

"Come with me." I said and grabbed his hand leading him to a broom closet, after he got in after me and shut the door he turned to face me but I quickly kissed him before he could say anything, I wrapped my arms around his neck and I felt him put his hands on my hips.

Finally he broke away and looked at me, "Not that I'm complaining but what are you doing?" He asked.

I moved my hands into his hair and moved my lips to his ear, I bit the bottom of it lightly then whispered in it, "I want you, right now." I said and he tightened his grip on my hips and spung me around pressing me against the door.

"Well I think this is'nt the right place for it." He said but moved his hans from my hips to my butt and grabbed both cheeks.

"Fine then, I guess we can just leave then." I said rubbing up against his lower half and he gripped my butt harder then lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

"You are playing dirty Mrs. Stokes" He said and moved his lips to my neck lightly kissing and biting.

"Probably because I've never wanted you this much." I said and heard him growl against my neck, I had my fingers in his hair and he move one hand from my butt up my side and placed it on my breast giving it a little squeeze. Before I could let out a moan though Nick put his lips on mine then opened my mouth and pushed his tongue in. I moved my hands from around his neck down to the top of his pants and started working on the button and zipper and he did the same with mine then set me down on the ground for a moment so I could move my one foot out of the leg hole and he could move his pants down a bit. He lifted me back up and I once again wrapped my legs aroud his waist and he pushed himself inside me and I bit my lip trying not to moan as went back out and pushed into me again then started to pick up the pace and I gripped his shoulders as he started kissing my neck again. I couldnt fight it back I ended up letting out a quiet moan as he moved into me faster and harder while gripping my thigh with one hand and tangled his other hand into my hair. After an amaing few minutes I was getting close to my peak and pulled Nick's head away from my neck and looked at him before kissing him hard and his hand that was in my hair moved to my butt cheek and he squeezed it releasing a moan from my mouth and then suddenly we both hit our peak. We stared at each other for a few minutes then he put me down and we got ourselves together and Nick opened the door and peaked out making sure no one was around then we left and headed back to the lounge.

Cathrine arrived shortly after and Nick finally convinced me to go home and rest, so we left the hospital and Nick drove us. While we were on our way Nick hand his hand on my leg and my hand was on his hand, he looked over and smiled at me.

"What?" I asked him

"My girl was kind of wild today." He said and I looked away

"Stop it I was not." I said

"Oh yes you were, it was kind of hot." He said and I smirked at him then turned in my seat and face him.

"Well I cant help it, my hormones are all weird, but right now I cant help but think I want you to pull over and take me to the back seat." I said and leaned over to him and placed my hand on his leg and moved my lips to his neck.

"Woman you are going to be the death of me, your either going to make crash this car or I'm going to get so worn out I cant move."

"Well I dont want either of those to happen so I guess i'll just move back over here." I said and leaned back over to my seat and went to move my hand off his leg but he grabbed it and put it back on his leg, I looked at him and he just stared out the window smirking so I played his game and moved my hand upward towards the middle of his pants and kept my hand there.

Finally we got home and Nick got out, opened my door and dragged me inside the house, we didnt even make it to the bedroom before our clothes were off and we were going at it again.

Later on I get a call from Grissom saying that Brass was awake and so me and Nick got dressed and met up with everyone at the hospital, we were all standing outside the room and Grissom was standing next to Brass's bed. Grissom moves to the side and Brass looks at us and smiles. Catherine hugs Dr. Robbins, Sara is hugging Warrick, who has a hand on Nick's shoulder, I'm hugging Nick from his side and Greg turns around and hugs Catherine.


	11. Chapter 11

**It started out as Friendship**

 **A/N: I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, I see people are reading but I want to know what you think, positive or negative let me know.**

After a few weeks out of the hospital, Brass was back on duty, I was starting to show a little bit and was mainly in the lab but sometimes they let me go out in the field. Nick got called into work one day, apparently there was a gang around beating people up, while he was out in the field I headed to the lab to see what I could do but Grissom wanted me to head to the hospital to take photo evidence of a woman that was beaten.

In the hospital room, I snap photos of Jessica's cuts and bruises. she is in a neck brace and flinches from the camera flashes. I move in closer and snaps more photos and set the camera down, then pick up forceps and a bindle.

"Jessica...this might hurt a little bit, but it's going to help us get the people who did this to you." I told her and pick off trace I find on Jessica's facial cuts and put it in the bindle, Jessica flinches and groans, "I'm sorry. Thank you." I tell her and set the bindle aside and picked up the camera again, "Do you have any other injuries?" I asked her

"Yeah. On my left side. Ow." Jessica rolls over on her side, her back to me and I lean in and look.

"Could you lift your left arm for me, please?" With a lot of pain and difficulty, Jessica raises her arm. She cries from the effort. I snap a photo of the bruised indention on her side. It's in the shape of an F. "Thank you." I step away and Jessica lowers her arm and rolls back.

"I just got out of a ten-year relationship. So I decided to take a solo trip to Vegas. You know, try the whole "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." She tells me and I pick more trace out of Jessica's facial cuts and place it in a bindle.

"Been there." I said

"Yeah, well, I get to take this face back with me." She says and cries, I put a hand on her shoulder then pick up a pen to mark the bindle, "Well, did anybody else get hurt?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I heard them say that I was number two. Was there a number one?" She asked me

"There was."

"How are they doing?"

"He died." I told her

Later I went back to the lab and started processing the evidence from Jessica, just then my cell phone rang, I left my work to the lab techs and rushed out of the lab. I arrived at a crime scene and the officers lift the tape for me and I rush past Sofia, who walks with me to the scene.

"Hey."

"Hey." I said and I see three bodies on the alley floor, medics attend to the beaten visitor and the attacker. I see Greg is unattended in the center.

"Why isn't there a medic on Greg?" I asked her

"He's been stabilized. Katie, he's going to be okay." She said and walks away.

I walk over to Greg and kneel next to him, Greg's eyes are closed and I put a hand on Greg's hair, lightly stroking, offering what little comfort I can.

"Katie..." He said faintly

"I didn't think you could see me." I said holding back tears

"I can't...but I know that Katie scent." He said

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." I said looking up and turning away as I sniffle.

"I scratched one of them." He told me and I take Greg's hand, careful to avoid touching his fingernails, "And you should check my vest. I think the same guy s-spit on me." I don't say anything, "And one of their cars crashed into the Denali. I guarantee there's transfer on it." I don't move and continue to stroke Greg's hair, "You should process the scene now. Me later." He said and I let a few tears fall.

"I came here for you, Greg." I said to him.

I rode with Greg to the hospital and I was sitting next to his bed until he finally convinced me to leave, I went down the hall and got stopped by a doctor who handed me a container, I looked and saw contact lenses, the doctor said they found them on Demitrius James. Grissom steps out of the room and walks down the hallway.

"Hey." I said and headed toward him, "Doctor found these on Demitrius James." I told him and showed him the container, he takes it and looks at it.

"Contact lenses?"

"Special kind. They're called Halloween lenses. They're wearing costumes." I said to him

"Great. Just a game to them." He said and sighed, "You planning on staying here?" He asked

"At least until Greg gets sick of me, or Nick forces me to leave." I said with a smile and he put a hand on my shoulder.

"You dont have to you know, we're all going to be coming by and visiting him." He said

"I know, it's just...I hate to leave him alone, especialy now, he needs the company."

Grissom nodded his head and kissed my forehead, "Okay but dont stay here to long alright?"

I nodded my head and he left, I headed back to Greg's room, he told me what Grissom said and I held hand. Finally i talke him into calling his mom and while listening to his conversation and seeing Greg start to cry again, I fought back my own tears. I finally left the hospital and headed home, I laid down on the bed and ended up falling asleep, I wake up shortly after to my phone ringing, it was Nick telling me he was going to go visit Greg, after I hung up I got up, showered then laid back down in bed and read my book until I fell asleep again.

A week later I was walking into Grissom's office and heard the end part of his and Cathrine's conversation,

"I'm going on sabbatical. You're gonna be the acting supervisor while I'm gone." I heard Grissom say.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow night." He said

"I'll be back before then." She said and left his office.

I walked in and he looked at me, "How long are you going be gone?" I asked him.

"Four weeks"

I nodded, "I see."

"I'm just teaching, then I'll be back"

"I'm not mad, I get it, this job takes a lot out of us. I mean come on when I have this baby I'll be out for six weeks, I wont know what to do with myself." I said with a smile and he walked over to me and pulled me into a hug.

"You watch out for everything while I'm gone." He said

"Don't I always?" I said and we broke apart.

"I'm so proud of the woman you've become, I love you." He said and I smiled at him

"Well thank you, I love you too." I said and I left his office.

Nick and Cathrine got back from Larkston, I was standing in one of labs with the door open and I heard Grissom call for Nick.

"Hey, Nick."

"Hey."

"Where's Catherine?" He asked

"Not back yet. I got a ride here with a local deputy." Nick said

"She told me she was going to be back before I left."

"Oh, yeah. Listen, about that...I told my folks when I went to college I'd be back, you know? Go to work at the D.A.'s office with my dad. You can kinda see how that turned out. Anyway, I just wanted to say it's been great, man." Nick says and gives a bewildered Grissom in a big hug and I stood there trying not to laugh, it was sweet but come on now, I'm the only person Grissom has really ever hugged, "Really, I've learned a lot from you, man."

"I'll be back in four weeks. Stop hugging me." Grissom said and I snickered, Nick lets Grissom go.

"Yes, sir." Nick said and Grissom shakes his head, turns and heads back into the office. Nick turns and continues down the hallway glancing in my direction and noticed the smile on my face and stuck his tongue out at me.

After he gets done in the ballistics lab I meet up with him so we can head out to lunch, as we made our way to the receptionist area we heard arguing.

"Sir, someone will be with you..." The receptionist started to say but was cut off by Adam Novak, douche bag.

"Look, I already told you, babe, I ain't going anywhere. So unless you want to have a really screwed-up day, I suggest you get her down here now." He said, me and Nick walk up to him.

"Mr. Novak."

"Where's Willows?" He asked

"Out. How can I help you?" Nick asked

"Why the hell is this department tailing my client?"

"Concern for his safety?" Nick said and I hide a smile

"That's cute. Jay Finch was acquitted of his mother's murder. He deserves all the rights of a free man."

"With all due respect, Mr. Novak, no laws have been broken here."

"You can't try Finch twice for the same crime." Novak said

"No, but you can for a different crime."

"Oh, I see. This is a personal vendetta by CSI Willows." He said

"Personal to who?"

"Me. She's a man-hater. No surprise, but how long do we have to pay for the sins of her father?" Novak said it took everything in me not to speak up

"You know, Catherine and I get along just great. Maybe it's you." Nick told him

"Well, you tell Catherine she continues badgering my client, I will file a claim with the Attorney General's office for oppression under cover of law."

"Duly noted." Nick said and Novak left, Nick put his hand on my waist and looked at me, I just shook my head and we left. After Nick dropped me off at home he headed back to Larkston to meet up with Cathrine, I sat down on the couch and turned the tv on and it was on the Discovery Channel, just how Nick had left it, I kept it on and pulled a blanket over myself and ended up falling asleep. I got woken up by the doorbell and made my way off the couch, I opened it and saw Grissom standing there.

"Hey" I said

"Hi, I just wanted to stop by before I left." He said and I smiled at him.

"Well I appriciate it, sorry Nick's not here to give you another good bye hug." I said with a smirk.

"Very funny, anyways, take care of yourself, and Nick."

"Of course." I said and gave him a hug, "You too."

He pulled away and we said goodbye and he left.

A week after Grissom a guy named Mike Keppler who came from Baltimore to help us out while Grissom was gone, I was a little unsure about him. Few weeks later things started to get a little weird, Cathrine sent Nick and Warrick out on a case about a stolen motorcycle, and I walked past a room and saw Keppler pull sheeting up over the windows and I stop Cathrine.

"What's going on?" I asked her

"Um, nothing I can talk about. Keep me posted on the 419. Greg's going to meet you at the scene." Cathrine said

"Okay." I said and Catherine enters the lab and closes the door. Hodges slides up next to me

"Ten to one, it's Internal Affairs. Got a vibe off Keppler the minute he blew in. Always with a suit. If you got any dirty laundry, I hope you used bleach." He said and went back into his lab, I headed to the locker room and saw Sara sitting on the bench holding and branch with a cocoon on it and I chuckled causing her to look up.

"Grissom?" I asked her

"Yeah, how did you guess?" She said with a smile and put it back in the box.

"You miss don't you?" I asked her opening up my locker putting my coat on.

"That obvious?"

"Yeah" I said and sat down next to her.

"I know its juvenille, I mean he's going to be back in a few weeks, but I really want to believe we're building something." She said and I grabbed her hand.

"If I know Grissom, he has a hard time showing how he feels, you know that, but trust me when I say that if your just patient with him, it'll all work out in the end. I want him to be happy and if that means you and him together then that's all I can ask for. When he comes back, just...just be there." I said and she smiled at me. After that I left the locker room and headed to my crime scene.

David Phillips picks up a maggot off the maggot-infested face of the dead body in the motel room.

"We got third Instar maggots." He says and I snapped photos around the apartment, "With this smell, she's been dead at least 48 hours."

I look at the contents on the table, drug paraphernalia and pizza boxes, "Toys are all here. Needle, syringe, tubing, candle, spoon." I said and Sofia walks into the room. I pick up what looks like a black drop wrapped in plastic, "It looks like heroin."

"Manager said he found her like this when he came by for a visit. Said they were friends, but he was a little unclear of her name. Monique something or other." Sofia said

"Maybe she was, uh, working off the rent." I said

"No ID on the body." David told us

"I'll take a look around for it." Sofia steps out of the room, David pushes the victim's sleeve up and finds a scorpion tattoo on her inner forearm.

"Needle marks are sclerotic. Chronic user. Probable OD." he said and I snap more photos, Sofia looks around the kitchen. There are dirty dishes and stacks of pizza boxes. I snap photos of the needle marks on the victim's arm.

"Scorpio. Ruled by Pluto. Although since it's not a planet anymore...I'm not sure how that works." I said

"Maybe it's a "dwarf" sign. Like Pluto is, you know, a "dwarf" planet now." David says and I smile.

Sofia check's the victim's cell phone, "Car keys. Cell phone. No "Mom" or "Dad" listed. There's a lot of food for a junkie."

"Maybe she had a roommate." I said

I get back to the lab but I had Sara go into the autopsy of our victim, I still get sick watching them get cut open. I'm walking through the hall and Greg catches up to me.

"I ran Monique Carter's phone records. Someone made a dozen calls from her cell yesterday." He said

"She was dead yesterday."

"Yeah, and we recovered her phone from her apartment, so someone was yakking while she was lying dead on the floor dead." He told me

"Let's run those numbers." I tell him and we pass Nick in the hall, he gave me a small smile as we went by.

I dust the steering wheel of Monique's car while Greg is working on the passenger side.

"Seat's been pushed all the way back." I said

"Manager said he saw a guy driving." Greg says and finds an envelope under the chair, "She was a lawyer. Suspended for failure to pay her Bar Association dues."

"Lose all that to drugs, you gotta be in a lot of pain." I said

"Or you think you're too smart to get addicted."

"You guys seen Catherine around? She's not answering her cell phone." Nick asked us walking in

"Mm-mm." I said to him

"Anything from your scene link back to Zamesca?"

"No. Why?" I asked

"Because I think your DB's the unidentified woman in the photo I found." Nick tells us

"Really?" He says and kneels, "And, excuse me," he said to me and I scooted over slightly, "We found this same type of material at the Zamesca scene. If we can match it back to this car...you could place the car at the scene. And Simon behind the wheel." He said.

Greg opens the door for me and Sara as we exit the building to meet Nick and Warrick outside.

"Uh, it's freezing. Why are we having a meeting outside?" I asked standing next to Nick, Greg and Sara stood across.

"'Cause Catherine and Keppler are in there." Nick said taking his coat off and outting it around me.

"What, have you guys been listening to Hodges?" Greg asked

"No, and this isn't about Keppler being IA anyway. This is about Catherine having a false confession and standing by it." Nick said

"You'd better be able to back that one up, man." Warrick told him

"Zamesca knew Sara, Katie and Greg's vic. He's dead, she's dead, same drugs are found at both scenes, and then...those same drugs showed up at your crime scene?"

"Could have come from the same supplier." Warrick said

"We see that all the time. I don't think it's a coincidence." Greg said

"You know, Catherine..." I said and glanced behind me, "...Catherine ordered Henry to step out of his lab without putting drug evidence away."

"Why would she do that?" Greg asked

"I did see Keppler checking out Zamesca's file yesterday. I didn't think anything strange about it then, but now..."

Sara looks around, "Okay, so...maybe there is an IA investigation." She said

"I can't find the Holstein evidence." Nick said

"What?" I asked and he nods.

"Catherine put it in a temporary locker." Warrick said

"Yeah. Why didn't she put it where it belongs?" Nick asked him

"The Holstein bullet was a little bit too clean, and Keppler didn't seem at all concerned about it. He said that we would see at autopsy." Warrick answered him

"Well, it's kind of hard to have an autopsy when you don't have a body, man. I talked to Doc Robbins; he's still trying to track it down. And the mortuary has no record of Catherine's phone call whatsoever."

"Do we have access to any of the Holstein evidence?" Sara asked

"We got the car." Warrick said and paused, "Catherine sent it to the impound."

"Well, at least we know where it is." Greg said

"All right, that's it. We're a team now, the five of us. We can't trust Catherine and we can't trust Keppler. I'm serious. I'm gonna run with this one." Nick said

"I'll run with you." Warrick said and Nick slaps Warrick's shoulder.

"You?" Warrick asked looking at Sara who looks at Nick as she weighs it.

"I'm in." They turn and look at Greg and he nods.

I feel Nick grab my hand and I looked at him and smiled, "You know I'm always with you." I said and he smiled as we headed inside.

I got to Grissom's office, I slid some magazines on his desk closer to me and toward the top drawer. I open the desk drawer, reach under the small animal skull and pull out a key. In one smooth movement, I tuck the key under the magazines and things, close the desk drawer and head out.

I knock on the door of the tempory lab we were and walk in.

"You know what? Katie's here. And she has the key. Got to go." Warrick says hanging up his phone I show Warrick the key.

"You know. I really hate deceiving people because, eventually, you get what you give." I tell him.

"I hate being deceived." He says and I unlock the door and opened it. Inside are two boxes marked HOLSTEIN. "Yes." Warrick grabs the first box and heads back to the table, "All right." I reach for the second box, "Anything I collected, we ignore." He said and I nodded as Warrick cuts the seal.

After we go through everything we all sit in the break room with Keppler and Cathrine,

"It's called reverse forensics." Keppler tells us

"Reverse forensics?" Greg asked

"Simon had to believe it when he saw it on the news." Cathrine said

"He was a fugitive. The only way to get him to show his face was to make him think he was off the hook." Keppler said

"And your only option was to fabricate evidence and make me process it?" Warrick asked them

"How could you think that we wouldn't figure it out? It's kind of what we do." Greg said

"I understand how you all feel. I am sorry. I did not have a choice." Cathrine said

"We trust you with our lives, Catherine. You could have trusted us with this." Nick said and I gripped his hand

"Sara?"

"If I have something to say to you, Catherine, I'm gonna say it in private. No offense." She said

"Katie?" She asked me

"Look Cathrine I get it, but Nick's right you could have trusted us with this instead of keeping us in the dark" I said

"Okay, look. We can still get Simon. He only walked on Zamesca. He drove Monique Carter's vehicle out into the desert. Nick's established that. Did he kill her, too?" She asked and Nick looks away and shakes his head.

Later me and Nick go to Monique's apartment, we open the door and walk in.

"What hasn't been cleaned?" Nick asked and looks around and heads for the kitchen.

"Furniture." I answered

"If Simon was hiding out here for a couple of weeks, he had to eat, sleep and use the bathroom. So, what did the cleaners miss?" He asked

I take out the crime scene photos and compare them to the room. "There used to be a pillow here. Maybe...he slept on the couch. I'm going to pull some hair 'cause you never know." I said to him

"We'd have to get a court order to compel a DNA sample from Simon. That takes time. Brass can only stall this guy's release for a couple hours, you know." Nick told me and I do a tape lift and find a lot of hair.

"Yeah, it's going to take days to sort through these." I hear Nick sigh and he looks under the sofa cushions and finds a bedsheet. He lifts the cushion and finds the handle. He smiles at me.

"Katie."

"It's a pullout." I said and dusted the handle for prints as Nick watches.

We finish up the case and Nick meets up with me at the reception desk, I look at him and he just grabs my waist and we leave the building. I get into the passenger seat and he gets into the drivers side.

"Hey are you okay?" I asked him holding his hand and he leaned back and sighed.

"No, I'm not, we get shut out of a case that Cathrine didnt even feel the need to tell us about but only involves Warrick to cover their tracks..." I cut him off and squeezed his hand.

"I know sweetie, and I'm not trying to defend Cathrine or Keppler for that matter but I get it." I said and he looked at me, "Remember the friend I have from college whos an FBI agent?" I asked and he nodded, "They do the same thing sometimes, they'll make it look like they caught the suspect to lure him out. Like I said I'm not trying to defend their actions, I have your back and I always will, but at least try to to see it from their point of view." I told him and he nodded slightly and leaned over planting a kiss on my lips.

"Let's go home." He said and I sat back in my seat and we headed home.


	12. Chapter 12

**It started out as Friendship**

After a few weeks had gone by and I was now 3 months pregnant, I was starting to get better at crime scenes with bodies, I would get sick on occasion but not as bad anymore. I was walking down the hall of the lab and I peeked into Grissom's office and saw my uncle standing there with his back to the door and I leaned against the door frame.

"You're gone for 4 weeks, you dont call you dont write?" I said and he turned around looking at me, "Now that's just plain rude." I smiled and he walked over to me giving me a hug.

"Sorry I was busy." he said pulling back.

"Not to busy to send Sara a cocoon." I smirked

"How did yo-?"

"I walked into the locker room as she was looking at it, only you." I said and he looked down.

"How's the baby doing?" He asked and I put my hand on my bump.

"Doing good, hopefully next month we will be able to find out the sex."

"Yeah? I'm glad I made it back for that. How are you doing at scenes?"

"It's gotten better, sometimes I do still get sick but I always leave when I do, Nick wont let me handle any print powder, or any of the other chemicals we use, and he keeps trying to get me to rest now and then." I told him and he smiled.

"Well he's right, you shouldnt over do yourself."

"I'm pregnant not terminal, I feel useless when I have to sit here in the lab."

"Wait until you get bigger, I'm sure me and Nick are going to have to force you to stay here." He said and I smiled.

"You would have to tie me to a lab chair."

Later on Grissom met Keppler and after Nick an Keppler got done interviewing someone I walked down the hall and saw Nick standing there holing a baby, I gave him a questionable look as I walked up to him.

"Did I fall asleep for 6 months?" I asked and he looked at me and I looked at my belly, "Nope bump is still there."

"It's our vic's baby, the babysitter dropped her off here." He said and I saw the baby start to get fussy and Nick looked like he didnt know what to do.

"Here give her to me." I said holding out my arms and lightly bouncing her, "There you go sweet girl, are you hungry?" I asked and looked at Nick who just smiled at me, "What?"

"You just look amazing holding her, and you seem to know what your doing." He said to me

"Well it's good practice, you'll get it too." I said and the baby started to fuss a little bit, I looked past Nick and saw a bag sitting there so I walked over and opened it up seeing a couple bottles, formula, and other baby things. I sat down and propped the baby on my knee as I made a bottle and gave it to her, once again I looked at Nick and he was smiling, "Stop looking at me like that." I said and he sat down.

"I cant help it, you look so natural." He said.

"Babies are easy, it's when they grow up that's the hard part." I said watching the baby, "Has anyone contacted child services?"

"Yeah Sofia did, I guess we will have to look out for her until they get here." He said and I nodded my head.

A few hours after Child sevices came and got the baby me, Cathrine and Nick were in Grissom's office while Catherine and Nick report their findings to Grissom.

"Why? By whom? Keppler told me that he didn't know Frank McCarty." Grissom said

"He also said he didn't know the victim. Maybe he's lying about that, too. I'm sorry, Catherine. I like the guy, too, but I'm just following the evidence here." Warrick said

"We should be talking to Keppler about this." Nick told us

"Where is he?"

"He was with me in A/V. Nobody has seen him since, and he's not answering his cell." Cathrine said

"He knows where the eyewitness lives." Nick said

"What are you saying, Nick?" Cathrine asked him

"I'm saying that if he had something to do with these two murders, then Frank McCarty's not the only one we need to worry about." He told her

"PD's on their way to Suzy Gibbons' apartment now." I told them

"Okay, grab Sara and go over there, and I'll have Brass call Trenton PD, see who knows who." Grissom told Cathrine

"Welcome home." she says and stands up and leaves the office. Grissom watches her leave.

"What other evidence did, uh, Keppler handle?" Grissom asked

"He brought back the three bullets from Autopsy, which didn't match the gun with his prints on it." Nick said

"Could he have swapped the bullets?"

"Anything's possible." I said

"He also searched the dumpster where the homeless guy found the hooker's purse and cell phone. He told Catherine he didn't find anything." Warrick says and Wendy enters the office

"I got your DNA results, and the blood on the gun from Frank McCarty's hotel room, it doesn't match either victim. There were no hits in CODIS, and the DNA print ancestry markers say that it's from a black male." She says

"Keppler and McCarty were both Jersey boys. Expand the search to the East Coast." I told her

"Will do. I really hope he's clean." She says and leaves the office.

"We have to treat him like a suspect. I'll tell Ecklie" Grissom said

Finally at the end of the day Cathrine found Keppler but he was shot and killed by Frank, Nick and Warrick found his cell phone with a note for us. I gave Cathrine a hug telling her I was sorry and then me and Nick went home.

Just a few weeks later Grissom called me into a scene, Nick was reluctant about it like always but I told him it was fine and made my way over the the scene.

I note a cigarette in the ashtray on the table is burned out completely to the edge of the filter and continues looking around in the kitchen on my way to the living room. The house is eerily quiet and I shine my light back into the kitchen – there's half a six-pack of soda on the counter near the stove. There's the empty wine bottle on the kitchen floor. I turn and slowly walk through the living room. I carry my kit and look around as I go. Just then the phone rings, startling me, the answering machine kicks on.

"Hey! You've reached Showgirl Heaven. Please leave a message at the tone. Thanks. Bye." I hear the girls say on the machine

 _"_ _Cammie, great audition today. You made it, girl. You're principal. Call me for the details Congrats!_ _"_

I pass the line of duffle bags on the floor against the wall and the machine beeps off. I head for the stairs and on the step, I note a bloodied shoeprint, I look up at the second floor, then cautiously make my way up the stairs.

I reach the second floor and on the carpet are bloodied shoe prints between the rooms. I turn to Cammie's room and find Warrick snapping photos, he turns and looks at me and I nod to him.

"Hell of a way to spend your night off." He said

"How many bodies do you have in there?" I asked him

"Three." He answered, "Grissom's down the hall, first door on your right. Just follow the bloodI turn and head for the hallway bedroom. I look down at the bloodied shoeprints on the carpet.

I step cautiously into the bedroom, Grissom is kneeling next to the bed with a dead body on it.

"Looks like sexual assault. Bound, pants pulled down." I said

"Yeah."

"Where do you want me?" I asked him

"Next bedroom. There's another body in there." He said

"Well, that makes five. The dispatch said there were six." I said and Grissom stands up.

"According to Brass, the boyfriend of one of the victims found the bodies. Said there were six roommates, all showgirls. Evidently, one didn't come home."

"She picked the right night." I said

I walk into the third bedroom, there's a dead girl on the bed. I pause a beat by the doorway and look inside then I walk in. I put my kit down and step closer to the bed, studying the scene. I look around and notice some blood smeared on the floor next to the second bed in the room. I walk over and kneel down to look under the bed. I shine my flashlight and suddenly, a bloody hand swipes at me and scratches my face, I pull back and reach for my gun while shouting.

"Hot scene! Suspect under the bed!"

"Katie!" I hear Grissom shout

I look under the bed and see Cammie huddled in a pool of blood, her hands tied in front of her.

"Please...please help me. Please." She says gasping

I put my gun aside and reach for Cammie, "Hold on. Victim down! Call an ambulance!" I yell

"Dispatch, this is CSI Grissom..." I heard Grissom call on his radio

I hold Cammie's hand, "You're safe now, okay? You're safe now. It's going to be okay." I tell her

"Help me. Help me."

Later on I'm sitting outside in an ambulance as they get done looking at my cheek, I see Greg walk by and he looked at me and gave me a small smile heading into the house

"Look, I know this is tough, but did she give you anything?" Brass asked me

"She told me her name. When I went into the room, she thought that I was him." I told him

"Anything else?"

I shake my head, "It didn't make any sense."

Just then I hear someone yell my name and I look up and see Nick running for me, he gets to me and pulls me into a hug, "What happened? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?"

I hugged him back, "I'm okay, baby's okay. I just got a scratch thats all." I said and he looked at my cheek.

"I knew I shouldnt have let you come. What if-"

"Nick stop, I'm fine, Grissom was right there, if anything dangerous were to happen he would have stepped in. Dont do this, just please go help them inside." I said and he sighed and nodded his head, he gave me a small kiss on my head then headed inside.

After looking around the backyard I open the back door and see Nick standing there, I walk into the house, closing the door behind me.

"He used a chair to jam this door." I said and he looked at me

"Are you sure your okay to work?" He asked me

"I'm fine Nick" I said and he nodded

"There's a custom-made label on a wine bottle over there." Nick says and points to the wine bottle on the kitchen floor, I kneel down and read the label.

"Love, Lewis. Cammie said something. "Poor wine." Maybe it had something to do with this bottle." I said

"Maybe he forced wine down her throat. Tox will tell us." Nick said and I put the wine bottle down on the floor and look around.

"It was good that you were there for her, Katie. She didn't have to die alone." Nick said and I looked at him

"We usually show up too late to meet the victim." I said and Nick nods and turns his attention back to the bulletin board.

Robbins and I go over the findings of all the bodies. The bodies are lined up next to each other in the large room.

"All six victims had ligature marks on their ankles and wrists. Jenn Smith was the only one with rib fractures. She took some abuse. Except for Becca Mayford, COD was exsanguination through incised wounds to the neck with a sharp-edged instrument."

"How did Cammie Brookston survive until we got there?" I asked him

"Well, in her case, there was only a partial transection of the jugular. Shallower cut, slower bleed." He said

"I found her at least two hours after the attacks." I said

"She must've applied pressure to her wound. That would've bought her some time."

"So if we'd have found her sooner, she would still be alive." I said

"Katie, there's nothing you could've done." I stayed quiet, "Well, she has a C-section uterine scar. Hairline, almost invisible."

"She has a child."

"Well, she gave birth some time ago." Robbins said

"Any signs of sexual assault?"

"Not with Cammie. I found semen in the vaginas of Emily Wilson and Lauren Walderson. Both had mild reddening and some superficial abrasion at the vaginal introitus. They could have had consensual sex in the hours prior to the attack. This young lady was raped." He said and turns to the body on the table set aside, "Rebecca Mayford had lacerations at three o'clock. Contusions extended from four to eight and ten to twelve."

"Any semen?"

"No. But, uh, look at these puncture wounds. Stab wounds have a large cutting component to the margins. Several of these stabs have additional tracks through the organ, suggesting a partial withdrawal and re-thrust of the blade." Robbins said

"Is that everything then?"

"Not quite. He left something behind. "Robbins points to the film on the viewbox.

"The tip of the knife."

Later on I'm walking with Greg, "I matched Jenn Smith's footprints with a partial Grissom lifted from that broken window. According to Catherine's attack order, Cammie was stabbed first and then Jenn. He didn't get sloppy with Cammie; he got distracted." I told him

"So he was with Cammie when Jenn tried to escape." Greg said

"Which explains Jenn's fractures. He kicked the crap out of her."

"He must have gone to the bathroom, cleaned off the knife, then dragged Jenn down the hallway to kill her." He said

"He never went back to check on Cammie."

Nick insisted that he sat in with me while I interviewed Mr. Greyburg. I put the photos out on the table between us.

"So, Mr. Greyburg, you don't want a lawyer?"

"Why would I need a lawyer? I sent the wine over to express my gratitude for their cooperation on the article." He said

"How did you get to know them?" Nick asked

"I followed them around for a week as part of my research. They were nice kids...uh, with big hearts."

"It's an airhead piece." I said to him

"My editor gave me an angle, I ran with it. But those girls raised $12,000 for a fellow showgirl with breast cancer. They organized their own walk-a-thon. They gave out swag bags, kitchen stuff."

"What kind of kitchen stuff?" I asked

"Uh...cutting board, juicer, kitchen knife." He says and I remember back to what Cammie said to me.

"Katie" I heard Nick say

"What did the knife look like?" I asked him

"It had a purple handle embossed with the name of their friend and the date. It was ceramic." He answered

"Killer shoes. There were multiple shoe impressions in blood at the house, looked just like those." Nick told him

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Look, I didn't kill those girls."

"Where were you last night, Mr. Greyburg?" I asked him

"I was at home alone working on my novel." Lewis said

"Prove it. We'll take your little ceramic knife, give us your shoes, and we'll take a sample of your DNA." Nick said

"You can have whatever you want." he said and looked at me, "Just stop looking at me that way."

Finally we catch the guy, David Marlon, me and Grissom are sitting in the breakroom watching the news report.

"I held his hand." I said crying and glanced back at Grissom, who is standing just behind me, "Just like I held hers. I lost perspective." Grissom wipes the tear off my cheek and I turn and look at Grissom.

"Go home" He said, I nodded and left.

After I got home Nick was sitting on the couch looking at the table looking at his computer, when I shut the front door he looked at me.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked me and I shook my head walking over to him.

"No I'm not but I will be, as long as I have you." I said and he pulled me down onto his lap.

"I always will be." He said and I kissed him lightly on the lips and I felt his hand on my bump.

"I'm also glad the baby is okay too."

"Of course, it is a Stokes after all." I said and he grinned.

"You know after tomorrow we're gonna have to stop calling the baby an it."

"I've been thinking about that, we havent really dicussed names yet." I said

"Well...do you have any in mind?" He asked me

I wrapped my arms around his neck, "I was thinking for a girl Lily Jillian Stokes after our moms and Bill Grissom Stokes for a boy." I said and he gave me his thinking face then kissed me.

"Both of those sound perfect." He told me and lifted me up and carried me to the bedroom.

The next day we woke up and headed to the doctors office, hopefully to find out the sex of the baby. After waiting for 10 minutes we finally got called back into the ultrasound room, I laid down on the bed with Nick sitting next to me holding my hand. The doctor got done doing the mesurements telling us that the baby was growing at a good rate.

"Are we finding out the sex today?" She asked us and we nodded our heads.

She moved the stick over my stomach and paused the video and pointing to the screen showing us what we were having. It was a gIrl. When she was done she printed us off some pictures and we left.

We headed to the lab, I was sitting in the passenger seat looking at the picture while Nick drove with his hand holding mine. We walked into the breakroom and saw Cathrine, Sara, Greg and Warrick sitting around the table talking, Cathrine looked up at us.

"Well?" she asked.

I smiled at Nick and looked at her, "We're having a girl." I said

"I knew it!" She said standing up and hugging me then Nick, followed by Warrick, then Sara, then Greg. I excused myself and headed to Grissom's office, I saw him sitting there doing one of his crosswords and I knocked on the door.

He looked up at me, "How did go?" He asked me and I walked over to his desk and put the ultra sound photo in front of him and he picked it up looking at it.

"It's a girl." I told and he looked at me.

"A girl, wow, and the doctor said everything is going good?"

"Yep, she's growing at a healthy rate and has a good heart beat." I told him.

"Got any names picked out?"

"Yeah actually, we settled on Lily Jillian Stokes." I said and he looked at me.

"After your mom." He said looking back the picture.

"I may not be a very big fan of my dad but I always loved my mom, she was always there for me, we just...I miss her, everyday." I said and put my head down, Grissom got up from his desk an pulled me into a hug.

"I know you do, I do too." He said and I hugged him tighter, "She would be proud of who you are now. I know I am."

"Thank you." I said and we pulled back.


	13. Chapter 13

**It started out as Friendship**

A few weeks later things took a turn for the worst, I met with Nick, Warrick, Greg and Cathrine in the layout room of the lab looking at a miniature scene that was placed in Grissom's office, the Miniature Killers next victim was Sara.

"The doll's still alive. That means Sara's still alive." Greg said

"Generic stretch of desert. She could be anywhere in a four-state radius." Nick told him

"Let's just focus on the details. There's always something to go on." Cathrine said to us

"She has to make these in advance, right? But how do you plan a car wreck? There's no way to know how the car's going to land." I said and Nick examines the car.

"Unless you wreck the car first, and then put her under it." Warrick said

"I think I got a VIN number." Nick said

"Give me the first six." Greg told him

"King-Sam-Victor-four-five-three."

Greg puts the number into the computer and runs a search and Grissom walks in with a file.

"Her name is Natalie Davis, and she works for our janitorial service." He said

"What?" I asked

"Here in the lab?" Cathrine asked and looks at a copy of her ID badge and info.

"For over a month. She's never been arrested, so there's nothing to flag on a security check. She used Ernie Dell's address on her work form. She has no home phone and no driver's license." Grissom said and the computer beeps.

"Okay, I got it." Greg said

282-040607 INCIDENT DATE  
2007 RED MUSTANG ACCIDENT CAR FLIPPED OVER LOCATION:  
ALLEY BEHIND THE TRIP WIRE BAR FRINE ST. & DORISA AVE.  
FATALITY, DRIVER IDENTIFIED AS NOLAND

The second screen reads:  
CASE FILE NO. LVPD 070406-3022  
Lead CSI: SARA SIDLE  
STATUS: CLOSED  
VICTIM: WELLER, NOLAND  
DATE: 04-04-07  
TIME: 05:19 AM  
LOCATION: FRINE ST. & DORISA AVE. ALLEY BEHIND THE TRIP WIRE BAR  
CRIME SCENE DESCRIPTION: RED MUSTANG 2007 TURNED OVER DRIVER NOLAND WELLER EJECTED FROM DRIVER'S SEAT VICTIM TOXICOLOGY FOUND ALCOHOL IN SYSTEM

"A 2007 red Mustang totaled outside The Trip Wire Bar six weeks ago. Driver fatality. DWI. Car went to scrap. Lead CSI on the case-Sara Sidle." Greg said and we all got quiet as we absorb this information.

"Pull up the case photos." Grissom tells him and Greg pulls up the photos. He clicks on the first one of Sara and Grissom at the scene with some of the bystanders behind them. Natalie is in the photo. He compares the photo with the file photo.

"Oh, my God. She was at the crime scene." I said

"So, she salvages the car, and somehow gets it out to the desert, and then grabs Sara, and puts her under it?" Nick said and I see Grissom rub his mouth nervously.

"I don't get it. What does Sara have to do with bleach?" Warrick asked

"I don't know. This just feels different." Cathrine said

"It is different." Grissom said, "This girl holds me responsible for the death of Ernie Dell. I took away the only person she ever loved, so she's going to do the same thing to me." He said and my heart dropped and everyone is quiet, "It's not about a psychotic reaction to bleach, or some dead sister or the doll." He looks at Catherine. "NotUrLittleBisqueDoll..." Grissom rushes out of the room. We're all left there looking at each other.

"Wait Grissom and Sara?" Nick asked looking at me, "Did you know?"

"Yes, but I told him I wouldnt say anything, so dont be mad at me." I said and he put his hand on my back.

"Why not you though?" Greg asked looking at me, "Your his niece, I'm not trying to say you should be there instead of Sara, neither one of you should be but.."

"Because my last name is different, I don't have Grissom's last name anymore, I have Nick's. Natalie has only been here for over a month, so she doesnt know that." I said and Nick pulled me to him.

"Thank god for that, but right now we need to get focus on finding Sara." Nick said and I nodded.

Nick and Warrick track down Natalie and as she's sitting in the interrigation room I'm on the other side watching her, then I see Grissom walk in the room. Natalie appears to be staring off into space.

"Natalie, listen to me-tell me where she is." Grissom said to her, but she continues to stare off reciting the eerie lines to the song in the same child-like, distant voice.

"For none of the doctors had ever before performed on a dolly's inside."

"Natalie. Please tell me where Sara is." Grissom begs her

"They tried to re-stuff her but didn't know how, and this was her wail as she died..."

Just then Grissom grabs Natalie's shoulders and shakes her, "STOP IT! Just stop this! Tell me where Sara is!" Grissom shouts.

"I've got a pain in my sawdust."

Grissom lets her go and rubs his mouth with his hand.

"That's what's the matter with me."

Hours later Grissom and Nick find the car and Sara's vest but no Sara, Me and Cathrine meet up with them in the dessert. Officer cars are parked around the area. Everyone is scouring the grounds for evidence and clues. Catherine and I run toward them.

"Nick!" I shouted reaching him

"She's not here." he say and continues to dig.

"Okay, that's good news." Cathrine says

"Guys! Park rangers said there's some roads on the other side of this basin. We're going to go scout them." Sofia shouts at us, turns and starts running.

"All right, I'm going with her." Nick said

"Me too." I said and Nick shook his head no at me, "Nick it's Sara, I have to go, for Grissom, please." He hesitated and finally gave in.

"Okay come on" He said and we made our way over to Sofia and got in her car heading out.

We drive along the road and Nick looks out the passenger window while I look out behind the drivers side.

"Wait, slow down, slow down, slow down." I hear Nick say and I moved over behind him and he looks through the binoculars

"What is it?" I asked

"Go that way. Go." Nick tells Sofia and she pulls off the road, suddenly, she stops the car. Nick runs out with me and Sofia following shortly after.

"Sara!" He shouts and he falls to his knees, "Sara, it's Nick. Can you hear me?" He looks up at me and Sofia, "I can't get a pulse."

I grab my radio, "We found Sara. North on the 159 at Turtlehead Peak. We need a medevac out here right now." I said and Nick pours the water from his water bottle on her.

"Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here, okay?" Nick says and I kneel down next to her and pour my water on her as well. The Search and Rescue team arrive as well as medevac helicopter. We continue to pour their water on her.

"They're coming for you now." Nick said.

"You're going to be okay, Sara." I said

The medic carries his bag and supplies toward them, "Over here!" Nick shouts

"What have you got?" The medic asked

"Female, 35, unconscious." Sofia said

"She's been in the sun all day, about fifteen hours. She's not answering me at all." Nick said and I got up to move out of their way.

"What's her name?"

"Sara." I told him

"Sara?! Sara, can you hear me?!" He asked her

"Oxygen...about 15 liters." the second medic said and Catherine and Grissom arrive.

"How is she?" Cathrine asked Nick who was standing next to Sara.

"She's not responding." The first medic said, "Give me a large-bore IV prep now."

"Copy that." The medics work on Sara.

"IV's in. We've got to move."

"Still no radial pulse" The medic said and Nick is holding the IV bag up. The medics have Sara on the transport. "Let's go get on loaded up. Watch the arm."

"On my count. One, two, three." The medics pick up the transport and carry her over to the helicopter. Nick holds the IV bag and follows them, I follow as well along with Grissom and Catherine

"Let's go..." They reach the helicopter, "You're secured? Get that IV pump." One medic climbs into the helicopter. They load Sara in next as the second medic climbs in after her with the IV bag.

"Where are you taking her?!" Cathrine asked

"Desert Palm!"

"Move over! I'm going with her!" Grissom says and climbs into the helicopter. They close the helicopter doors and the helicopter lifts off.

Me, Cathrine, Sofia and NIck stand there and watch the helicopter leave, Nick wraps his arm around me and I lean my head on his chest tears falling from my eyes, feeling selfish I couldnt help but think, that could have been me.

A week later I go to Grissom's office and see him sitting there holding a note.

"Hey, whats going on?" I asked him and he shook his head.

"Nothing."

"Dont do that, tell me whats going on." I said and he held up the letter.

I grabbed it and started reading it, after I finished I put it down and looked at Grissom, "I'm so sorry." I said and went over to him and bent down as much as I could and gave him a hug. We didnt say anything after that, we just hugged each other.

A few weeks after we were working a case and later on when Nick gets home he tells me Warrick is taking pills to help him stay awake and to help him sleep, I see the worried look on his face and I put my hand on his cheek.

"He's going to be okay, he just needs you to be there for him right now." I told him and he pulled me into a hug.

"He needs both of us." Suddenly he pulls away and looks at my belly with a shocked look, "Did the baby just kick me?"

I laughed and put his hand on my belly, "She's been doing that since you got home, I guess she can tell when her daddy is here." He smiled as he felt the baby kick again then pulled me into a kiss.

The kiss grew more passionate and he pulled me closer to him and I moaned when he slipped his tongue into my mouth, he backed us up to the bedroom and we made our way to the bed. He moved me down onto the bed then got up and pulled his shirt off then came back down to me, I put my fingers in his hair and he moved his one hand up my shirt and squeezed my breast. I moaned and he move his mouth to my neck and started to kiss and bite my neck, I moved my hands and pulled off my shirt and threw it aside, Nick then moved his mouth to my breast and his other hand squeezed the other one. I moved my hands to his pants and started undoing them.

"Someone's in a hurry." Nick said in my ear then lightly bit it.

"Sorry, my husband is just so damn sexy and he keeps playing with me."

With that Nick scooted us up the moved his hands down to my pants and undid them pulling them down with my underwear, "Well then I think I should play with my sexy wife a little more." He said and moved his hand up and down the inside of my tigh then I felt his fingers tease my center and I put my fingers back in his hair.

"You shouldn't tease, it's not very nice." I said and he grinned before kissing me then he pushed two fingers inside me and I moaned into his mouth and bit lightly on his lower lip. He curled his fingers and pumped them into me and I threw my head back and closed my eyes. He began kissing my neck again while moving his fingers into me faster and added another finger. I grinded my hips against his hand and I felt him smile against my neck, "Nick..." I was barely able to finish before an orgasm hit and I moaned.

Then Nick moved his hand and propped himself above me and kissed me again then positioned himself between my legs and slowly pushed himself inside and I bit my lip as he pulled back out then pushed into me harder and picked up his pace moving faster and harder into me.

"Oh..god...Nick!" I moaned and he lifted my left leg up an hooked it over his arm and pushed in deeper.

"Katie..my wonderful, amazing, beautiful Katie." Nick said and I felt myself getting closer to my peak again and Nick kissed me again and we both reached our end. Nick rolled off of me and laid on his back and I rested my head on his chest.

"You..cowboy..do not like to play fair in bed." I said and he smiled.

"Sorry ma'am, I just love watching you melt under my touch." He said and ran his fingers lightly up and down my arm.

"You've always had that affect on me, even when we were just friends and you would either pat me on the back, or even just standing close to me I would get a little weak in the knees." I told him

"Wow can you believe its been almost 5 years since then? Look at us now, I'm married to a girl who's so far out of my league I hope she never figures it out." He said and I slapped him lightly on the chest and he chuckled, "and we are having a baby in 4 months. I honestly cant imagine my life before you, or do I want to, everyday since I met you has been amazing and I wouldnt trade that for anything." He said and I looked at him.

"You are one smooth talker Mr. Stokes." I said and kissed him, "I feel the same too, being with you makes my past seem like it doesnt matter anymore and all that does matter is how happy you make me and how much our daughter is going to feel loved."

He kissed me one more time and we stayed like that until we fell asleep. Just then mine and Nick's phones rang, Grissom called me to help him with a scene at a strip club where there was a dead stripper found in Warricks car, Nick had a scene involving two dead dogs and a women, we got dressed and headed to our scenes.

Later I was in the garage with Grissom and he was fumming Warricks car, just then Warrrick enters the garage, Grissom gets out of the car.

"Hey, Grissom."

"Did you talk to IA yet?" Grissom asked him

"Yeah. They cleared me. They didn't seem to have much interest in Gedda."

"That's because it wasn't about Gedda. It was about you." Grissom told him

"It's everything to do with Gedda. Sending me a message. Murders an innocent young girl because I got too close to them. I want this case, Gris."

"I hope you know that's not gonna happen. You're in the rotation as of tomorrow, so go home." Grissom says and Warrick leaves.

I look at Grissom, "Do you think he did it?" I asked

"It's not about what I think." He told me

"Come on Grissom, I know he's been a little out of it lately but he would never kill someone. I admit him trying to go after Gedda by himself isnt a smart move but.."

"Even if he is innocent, we need to gather enough evidence to prove it." He told me and I nodded as we got back to work.

I was walking to Grissom's office later on and I saw Warrick walking out of it and he accidently bumped into me.

"Oh shit Katie I'm sorry, are you okay?" He asked and I smiled at him.

"Yeah I'm fine, are you? I know it's been a rough couple of days but I'm here if you want to talk." I said and he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Thanks, I'm okay, I'll keep that in mind though." He said and walked away and I entered Grissom's office.

Later Brass and Grissom are interviewing Richard Dorsey, a homeless man who's prints were in Warrick's car along with Warrick's. I was watching in the observation room when Warrick walked in and stood next to me.

Brass snaps his fingers, "Hey, you still with me, Richard?"

Richard lifts his head off the table, "Yeah, yeah, yeah.

"Remember her?" Brass shows Dorsey a photo of Candy, "She worked at Pigalle."

"They all look the same to me."

"No, they don't. There's blondes, brunettes, B-cups, D-cups." Brass told him

"How about a cup of coffee, huh? Hey, you got a cigarette I could bum off you?"

"It's bad for your health. How about a diet soda?" Brass said to him

"Diet? No. No diet. I need the ups."

Grissom puts the evidence bag with the pink cell phone on the table, "Where did you get this?"

Dorsey looks at it, "Where's the soda?"

"Hey, it's a two-way street, Richard. You answer the questions, we'll get you a soda." Brass tells him

Richard grabs the evidence bag and looks at the cell phone, "Yeah. Uh ... I found it. That's it. I found it."

"No, you didn't." Grissom said to him

"I didn't?" Grissom smiles at him and shakes his head. "Damn. Okay. Uh, yeah, I stole it. That's right. I stole it. I needed money."

"Then what happened?" Brass asked him

"I got high."

"Then what?"

"I got high again."

"Then what? Did you kill her?" Brass asked him and Dorsey looks blankly at them.

"We found her purse and the bloody murder weapon in the place where you were sleeping. We found her dead body inside this car." Grissom says and Grissom shows him the photos.

"Why'd you pick that car, Richard?" Brass asked him

"I don't know what you mean."

"We found your fingerprint inside the car." Grissom told him

"No, that wasn't me. Tha-tha-that w ... that was them."

"Who's them?" Brass asked

"I c...I can't talk no more." He said and Warrick leaves the observation room and he opens the interview room door and I stay there.

"Come on. Tell the truth." Warrick says to him and Brass turns around.

"Get him out of here." Brass tells Grissom

"Not you." Richard says looking at Warrick

"Tell the truth." Warrick shouts at him

"This is all your fault." Richard says and the officer pushes Warrick out of the room.

"We'll take care of you. We'll get you into rehab. Come on." Warrick shouts to him, Grissom gets up and follows them out.

"There is no truth!"

"Tell the truth!" Warrick shouts from outside the room

"THERE IS NO TRUTH!"


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I am so sorry I havent wrote anything for this story lately but the website I was using for the transcripts wont show me who says what for the episodes so I have no idea how or what I'm gonna do but I will try my hardest to figure it out. Again I'm really sorry.**


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